Sydney Quilt Show 2018

I had an unexpected opportunity to go to the Sydney Quilt Show last weekend. So many stunning quilts to see! The intricate workmanship and time invested in these quilts was mind blowing. Visit my new blog for just a few that took my eye!

She crochets?

My Woodland blanket is finished. Read about it over at my new blog space.

A new home for Bloom

I was taking my son to his driving test the other day. He was nervous. In his usual way, he was overanalysing the scenario - "What if this happens, Mum? Or this? What if ... what if"?

In a moment of parenting genius (and a little frustration), I told him, "Stop saying WHAT IF and start saying WHATEVER". Do you like that? I like it.

I liked it until I realised it applies just as much to me as it does to him!

I have been working on a new website for Bloom for months (yeah well, maybe years). I have been fussing over this and that, changing templates, worrying about my 'brand', worrying that I haven't got all the links working, abandoning the whole process for a while, reading more books and advice. Yep, painful.

Bloom, 'Stop saying WHAT IF and start saying WHATEVER'.

And so, in a serious WHATEVER moment, I can announce that my new website is LIVE!

As a little celebration and a gift to you, kind readers, I have put together a new tutorial for some cute felt accessories for every kind of maker. 

For the stitchers, there are bloom pins:

For the crocheters, there are bloom stitch markers:

 

And for the knitters, stitch markers too!

I will be blogging at the new site from now on. Please visit me there, and have a look around.

The tutorial for the flower pins and stitch keepers is over at the new site, so please pop over and say 'hi'.

Can you see it? Can you see me enticing you over to visit? That would be me worrying, 'What if no one comes to see me at the new place'? But now I say, 'Whatever', and get on with it. See you soon?! Bloom x

Garden progress, slowly but surely

We have been living at our new place for about 15 months now. It feels like progress on the new garden has been tediously slow. But then I look back through the photos!

The first small section that we tackled is at the back of the house. At one end of the 'entertaining area' was the clothesline. I figured that any entertainment was hardly going to be enhanced by the sight of my knickers flapping closeby, even if they were clean! And so the clothesline needed to be moved pronto.

My Sweetness and The Boy did the hard yards by putting up a screen, which would later hide the offending clothesline.

The white gravel was removed laboriously, with shovels and barrows. 

The soil here is truly awful - a very heavy yellow clay, with shale not far from the surface. It was one of my biggest concerns in buying this property, for fear that I wouldn't be able to grow a garden. In came some topsoil:

Eventually came the fun part - deciding on garden shapes and design. The boys welded and installed edging to my exacting specifications (!) and connected sprinklers. I couldn't garden without their help.

We seeded some fescue lawn and concreted in a few pavers for access. We inherited some garden statues from the previous owners. This maiden was rescued from under some bushes, and restored to her former water-bearing beauty!

Of course, roses were planted as a matter of priority. The advantage of planting a new garden is that I can experiment with new roses! This is Rosa 'Eye of the Tiger'.

A new garden also means I can plant old favourites, including the pink flowering crepe myrtle, Lagerstroemia indica x L. fauriei 'Tuscarora'.

And so, we sit and wait for plants to grow and settle into their new space.

 And we sip wine nearby with not an undergarment in view ;) Sweet!