My slackness...

I have been so slack in posting lately - mainly because I don't think anyone reads this thing ... partly because I've been busy living life ... partly because I've been busy reading other people's blogs ...especially this one that I LURVE!!! called Pioneer Woman - I think I actually drool when I read her cooking blog ... as well as laugh at her witty asides ... makes me want to move to a country town in America ... and cook, raise a family ... basically become a Suzy Homemaker as they say. I'd have to have some side job to keep me sane though ... I'm thinking about starting a home business baking and decorating cakes. For the last few years I've made my neice's birthday cakes. This year they got a gorgeous chocolate cake covered in sea-green icing with a (plasticine) mermaid. They were going to get a mermaid made in icing but .... let's just say my experimentation went a little awry - the icing wouldn't peel off the baking paper... it just crumbled to icing dust ... :( note to self - next time make it bigger and thicker! And don't wait until midnight the night before to ice the cake!

I almost forgot to get a picture!

So to make up for no pictures or blog in ages ... I've got heaps ... mostly of the garden and its progress (or lack thereof). Today is a pretty hot day so some of the vegies look a bit wilted.

The beautiful gardenia that I bought to grow

The young mango tree that was here when we moved in
Yummy sweet strawberries

An abysmal failure ... the avocado tree I let die (besides... I can't wait 10 yrs for avo's!)

The tomato seedling I'm keeping alive while trying to decide where to plant it

Strawberries....and other winter goodies!

Flowers ... there are actually flowers in my strawberry plant!! And today I looked and there was a fruit! Oh my god ... I get to eat some strawberries (fingers crossed) from my own garden! No pics cause I only had time to dart out and water, pull one or two weeds and plant some sprouting carrot tops and an onion. It seems like forever since I've been out there and it shows ... weeds weeds everywhere. But, the vegies seem to be doing ok on their own. Cabbage is going well, onions look to be as well and spinach - that's ready to pick! The choko vine is starting to creep along the ground so I guess I should put some kind of lattice or bamboo structure up. I'm not sure what to do with it because I'm not a huge choko fan. Guess I can spread them around the family.

Been so sick with the flu but the fact that I actually want to get outside in the half hour of sunlight left in the day by the time I make it home means I'm finally feeling better. About a week ago I got given a length of sugar cane that has some buds on it so I cut the bottom half off and planted it at the back of the vegie patch. Will see what happens with that ... even if I never use the cane it will make great mulch when I cut it back (I hope).

My dear husband broke off my poor little frangipani survivor that I appropriated from our last rental place ... it almost died in the pot I put it in waiting to be transplanted. I guess not watering it might have been the culprit. It finally got planted and I got a little growth before winter set in and the leaves dropped off ... then he kicked it on his way to put the bin out and it snapped. :( I was annoyed but I put the broken piece back into the ground ... hopefully this one takes as well.

The weekend...

Saturday was ... interesting. I was hoping to get heaps done - wedding dress fitting, visiting my grandfather and a makeup trial with a very generous friend but the only thing I got done was the wedding dress fitting. It was actually more than just a dress fitting - we ended up making a petticoat on the spot. I spent most of the day putting my wedding shoes on and standing (or wobbling) on a phonebook with my uncle (dressmaker) and my mum poking and prodding at me! We fixed my corset as it was doing a rather poor job of enhancing the cleavage area of the dress, fixed the neck line of the dress and shortened the train. I want simple and understated but unfortunately my dear uncle is more of the princess poof and cathedral train kind of dressmaker. He's probably very disappointed but simple and understated is my style. My mum reminded him that I'm not a dress kind of girl - I'm a pants and jeans kind of girl. I'm going to struggle with the little train I've got!

Seeing the dress up there on the hanger - it was pretty scary! It suddenly struck me hard that this is really really happening ... that in less than 2 months I will have a different name and legally "belong" to someone else! Scary scary stuff! But exciting too I have to admit. Can't wait for the big party that I'm sure my reception will be. At last count - 100 people have RSVP'd in the affirmative! Wow! I designed and hand made all my invites and am doing the same for my table numbers and placecards. They look great but god that is going to be a lot of work!

I hope the rain we've been having will result in a garden boost - the most I've done is go and pull some grass out from between my lettuces.

Vegie Vigor?

My pumpkin plant - has only produced 2 female flowers so far ... tiny ones too

We had a few really warm days which I knew would mean rain! So I got in there and planted some seeds. The ground was really dry by this point which meant I had to give the ground a good soak ... I admit I was REALLY naughty and used the hose. But in my defence ... I hadn't watered the garden in a few days and my partner and I NEVER wash our cars or clean around the outside of the house with water and I usually use a watering can! I know I need to start collecting our dishwashing water to use now that I have bought an environmentally friendly dishwashing detergent. I'm really suprised at how good that detergent is! I bought a bottle a few months ago and I was so suprised how long it lasted and how little I needed to use. The next detergent we bought was a Palmolive one and that went so quickly! I was worried about using that on my garden but will definately be doing it now that we've got this eco-detergent.

The lettuce seedlings that I planted got fried! I watered them every day and they looked beyond redemption and I almost wrote them off. I thought I would give the Seasol I had bought and never used a try. I think I put twice the amount I needed though ... 2 capfuls to 9L of water .... oops! But the next time I watered the plants I noticed that my lettuce was definately recovering! I watered the lettuce, my herbs and my orange tree with it. I think the orange needs a different kind of feed though ... it's growth progress isn't what I expected but at least it'st still alive! There are new little green shoots coming out from under where I assume the graft took place. Not sure what I should do with them ... pull them off or let them go. New growth is new growth! It would pain me to cut them off.

My poor little orange tree

I really need to get a border for around my garden ... I think it needs something solid like wood so I can heap the mulch up after I get it but W wants to put some green wire edging up ... grrr ... oh well - I'm guessing I'll get my wish sooner or later.

The garden I scratched out from the weeds!

This mango tree was planted by the tenants before we bought the place,

you can see the passionfruit vine going across and over the fence

Thyme and parsley

One of my recovering lettuce seedlings

One of the first passionfruits

Cucumber seedlings?

I spilled some seeds near the edge of the garden edging and I thought I might as well leave them cause the dirt was wet - I didn't even cover them with dirt! These popped up and I think they are cucumber! Can't wait to see how they grow ... if they end up looking like weeds out they will come!

3rd post!

I have been so slack in posting anything ... mainly because I've been busy with planning the wedding as well as living my life. Unfortunately, just before Christmas I fell sick and was let go from my job. Ever since then I have been looking for a new job - not easy at all with the state of things at the moment.



To change the direction of my blog - I'm just going to blog about whatever happens in my life. The wedding is not the be-all and end-all and I think far more interesting things are happening to me in my every day life.

So on Saturday we held my Bridal Shower/Birthday party (I know ... slightly wedding related but not totally! :) ). I organised it all myself as my MOH is my little sister ... who seems completely uninterested in the whole thing. I planned the cocktails and canapes we were going to serve and I left all the games to her. I did up my own shower invite and sent it to her to email/mail out. I'm one of those annoying people who tries to be super-organised. Everyone was asking if they could give me a hand but I had it under control. We had so much fun making the cocktails - and drinking them! There were some hilarious stories from when we were all younger and I hope everyone had as much fun as I did. Once I get some pics, I will try and post them here to get my blog moving.

I hope that my next few blogs will have something about my budding vegetable garden in them - I've designated tomorrow as "Seed planting Day" ... not looking forward to making myself get out of bed after staying up till 3am! I punish myself...

My wedding nightmare

I have nearly had my first nervous breakdown over my wedding ... and it's all my MOTHER'S fault. Other brides possibly have their mother-in-laws to deal with but not me! As the family have offered to cater and my parents insist they are paying for alcohol and have from the start I feel the burden of accomodating my mother's wishes/edicts as much as possible. However, I'm getting mightily sick of the emotional blackmail! The minute that I try and wrest control of my own wedding back from my mother's clutches I get "You don't want us to help?? Then we won't - do it all on your own!" or ... "you're paying for your wedding? Then pay for all of your wedding" when I dare ... I really can't deal with this anymore ... my fiance and I are about to say - "It's our wedding, please don't pay for anything because we will be covering all the costs including food and alcohol" so that I can keep my sanity. The only catch is that covering the additional cost of alcohol and food will stretch us to the limit on top of our mortgage. Not a good thing :( Things are made worse by the fact that my cousin and his girlfriend recently got engaged - about 3 weeks ago ... we got engaged more than a year ago ...but I just heard that they've ALREADY booked their reception venue!!! It's driving me NUTS. Ever since I got engaged it seems that other people have gotten engaged after us and gotten married already and we're still planning our wedding!!! :( I think I've almost lost my mind.

My First Blog!!

A year and a half after we got engaged - 8 months out from our tentative date and we still haven't found the all important reception venue!! Apparently it's next to impossible to find a half decent self-catering function venue in Brisbane!! Ok ... maybe I'm not happy with half decent - I would just like somewhere that is relatively nice inside (no peeling paint, no multi-coloured paint, no HOLES, no giant cobwebs), has a kitchen suitable for reheating pre-prepared food, an industrial dishwasher and that isn't licensed. We've been running into a few suitable community venues that are licensed - how do you get a liquor license for a COMMUNITY venue??? My favourite so far is Beenleigh Community Centre - it's beautiful inside and highly suitable apart from the slight problem of OVERPRICED alcohol due to the community centre being licensed. I don't think my parents want to pay $20 per bottle of wine ... there's not much choice either ... they've got Wolf Blass or Wolf Blass. Brown Brothers have some GREAT wines for under $20 that most people love. I will keep you posted on the progress of "The Great Reception Venue Hunt!!" ... in the meantime check out some of my "inspiration images".