let the sun shine in

December 7, 2017 Kate

It feels a little superficial and silly to say that a living space has changed my life, but our new sun room really has. When it's wet and windy outside - it's protected and warm inside, when there are dishes in the sink and the laundry waiting to be hung - you can literally close the door and turn your back on them, when it feels dark and gloomy in the house - it's bright and airy in the sun room, when you want to jam with your sisters, clean and sharpen your knife collection, darn in the ends of your socks, drink your morning coffee, make plans for your birthday party, grow plants that are a little fragile, read your book, do your homework, practise your instrument, chat on the phone... the sun room is the place to be.

Bren promises me that he'll never get sick of me gushing about how happy I am with that space, but surely 50 plus times a day must be pushing his limits.

This past week Bren and Jobbo continued paving outside the laundry. Hopefully by next week there will be an undercover clothesline and a big door at the end to close it all off.

The paving also continued to make a landing out the front door to to welcome you from the garden into the house. It's almost time to plant some grass seeds out the front and plan where the new veggie gardens will go.

This week I spent a lot of time weeding the garden, staking some plants that got knocked over in the storm, planting and harvesting.

It looks like the first of the zinnias might burst into bloom any day now which excites me no end. I've actually enrolled in an online flower farming course starting in the new year. It's something I've been thinking about for a while now and when the opportunity arose I took it. At this stage I have no idea what it means for the future of Daylesford Organics but I do love the thought of growing rows and rows of colourful blooms. I also really love the fantasy of dressing my girls in linen aprons and sending them off down the rows to pick armfuls of flowers at dusk for my photo shoots. Watch this space...

In the meantime that wild jungle of a self-seeded corn flower bed that I've been threatening to pull out for weeks now is a vision of green and blue and providing us with the prettiest posies.

The cat is still playing hide and seek and jumping out at me from all the most unexpected places.

I've been knitting up a couple of child sized socks for my master class at the Soul Craft festival.

In my class I'll be showing you how to knit a sock just like this. Using a circular needle we'll cast on the toe (pale blue), knit up the foot (red), increase for the gusset (navy), turn the heel (pink/green), knit up the leg (grey), rib for the cuff (yellow), and finish with a stretchy bind off.

If sock knitting is something you've been thinking about trying for a while, if you've knitted socks cuff down and want to try toe up, if you want to ditch the DPN's for circs and the magic loop, then this class is for you. Imagine the fun we're going to have. I'm so excited.

Please click on this link for more info on my class.

Please click on this link to book for my class.

Please click on this link to check out the amazing program of speakers and demonstrations and masterclasses on offer. (If you book into my class on Saturday the 9th June, your ticket includes entry to the festival, the speakers and demonstrations, a curated market, community projects, craft dating (I'm not actually sure what that is - sounds interesting), lots of spaces to sit and make, delicious food and opportunities to connect with other crafters. Sounds cool, right!

And other than all of that I've been planting cucumbers, eating broad beans, going to all of the end of year performances, reading Morris Gleitzman's After, counting down til the last drive of the school year, wondering if we should pull the rest of the garlic out, hoping for a bit of weekend sunshine it's freezing today, looking for some inserts for some old wire hanging baskets, feeling all of the feels about our girls going into grade 5, year 9 and year 12(!!!!!) next year and listening to my tummy grumbling I think it's time for lunch.

I hope you're doing really well my friends.
Has a space ever changed your life?
Do you ever feel like you're on top of the weeding?
Are you going to come and hang out with me at the Soul Craft festival?
Do you have plans to start something new next year?
Do you have something fun planned for this weekend?

I hope you have a great one!
See you next week.

Love Kate x