Sarah's craft 2012 so far

This winter has been COLD. I (we) love our house but a large old house after a modern one bedroom unit above a restaurant kitchen has been a huge adjustment that I especially haven't coped very well with. Most of winter I have spent sick and/or curled up on the couch under my electric throw rug crocheting, knitting and crafting my little heart out. Here are a few of my creations (with cute models):

Sammy's slippers and bunting

Jambin's elf hat

Darcy's monster hat

Isaac's monster hat

Jacob's comic book birthday card

Some stuff for me/us!
Reusing jars around the house - here in the bathroom for hand soap, moisturiser and plants.

In the shower. We can buy in bulk then pour out as needed. The beautiful bottles were milk containers from a local food coop.

Dishcloth from kitchen cotton. When its gets dirty - chuck it in the wash! I have made three different styles so far. Still deciding which is the favourite.

Plarn (plastic bag yarn) work-in-progress basket. 

I have not bought a single pattern and a lot what I have made uses repurposed materials. Most of my inspirations have come from Pinterest.com - an online and 'social-media' pinboard. If you like craft (or fashion / food / photography / other) it's great, but addictive - I have heaps more things 'pinned' ready to tackle as I can find the time.

DIY self watering pots

In the garden I try to DIY as much as possible. For both environmental and financial reasons. When I first started out, quite a few sites on the interwebs had instructions for cutting a milk or soft bottle in half and inverting the top half to make a self watering pot. Recently I have been taking it a step further and turning the handle into a spout. It has been working so well that I thought I would document and share.

 Empty milk bottle, that would otherwise go in the trash

Cut ~2 cm below the handle

Cut off the handle

 Poke holes around the opening - for water to seep into the soil. Perhaps not necessary but I have found it works better if I do this.

Feed the handle back through the hole left where it was cut off. Can duct tape it into place, but I have since found its ok without the duct tape - as long as you hold the handle/spout in place while filling the pot with soil.

Place the top, with the spout, upside down in the bottom half of the container.

Optional extra - as I had some old hand towels I was cutting up for other purposes I added a wick - through the 2nd hole left by where the handle was cut away. Usually I don't bother. 

 Tada! Add soil to the top and pour water down the spout and you have a home made self-watering pot.
I have been using these in my greenhouse to raise larger seedlings.

Previously I added an overflow hole on the side - about half way up, but I don't bother anymore. As the container is see-through I can see how much water is in it. It is covered (in the greenhouse) so there is no chance of rainfall flooding the plant. Minimising access to the stagnant water will hopefully prevent mozzies breeding in there - I am very wary of creating too many mozzie breeding grounds in my garden.

Hobbies

For just over a month now I have been working on Saturday. For a whole range of reasons it's working well, but one particular reason is it means we now have Sat = Mattday, Sun = Usday and Mon = Sarahday. As well as singing, I am now doing piano lessons and picking up old favourite hobbies: gardening, sustainable living and getting crafty.

Garden
This week on my Monday I installed a rain water tank/barrel on our balcony (as we have no water access there). I had intended to make one as per a mishmash of these instructions:
http://www.greenlivingeco.com/make-a-rain-barrel-a-how-to-guide
http://www.cityofbremerton.com/content/forms/MakeYourOwnRainBarrel.pdf
but to cut a long story short found this at a local hardware store instead. I added the mosquito netting.

So far I have planted a bottle brush cutting and cat grass, but have big plans for veggies and fruit in containers, a small greenhouse and outdoor table setting - finally our balcony is getting some use.

The 'before' pictures

Living sustainable
Our worm farm is going, it's just not working for us. We have found a home for it (my work) and replaced it with a new indoor composting system called a Bokashi Bin. So far, so good, it works like the packet says, doesn't smell etc. While searching for an alternative to the worm farm I came across a shop not too far from us.
http://www.todae.com.au/Products/bokashi/bokashibucketindoorcomposting
I visited for the Bokashi and walked away with a whole bunch of stuff, with plans for more. :)

Crafty
Inspired by my new work colleague, Cherie (who BTW is also an ex-Qlder and her husband works with Matt) I dug out my old crochet and knitting. I finally finished a scarf I had started when I was commuting to Fairfield. I think it looks pretty awesome (if I do say so myself) and just had to wear it work today.

Please feel free to leave a comment. Let me know what you think of the blog so far, tell me what you want more (or less) of or just say 'hi' cause it will make me smile.