A better use for a kitchen bench...

This weekend I discovered that our kitchen bench makes a great cutting bench for my sewing and art work!!


Last weekend the same bench was turned into a felting worktable...

Being an island bench means I can work from all sides and it's the perfect height for cutting. The tile surrounds mean that clean up of threads, interfacing and even soapy felting mess, is easy!

Of course I do enjoy cooking at my kitchen bench as well like the Mexican spread of Fajita's, Nachos, guacomole and salad of last night, or the Italian cooking class that I gave my family as a Christmas gift...



...anyway that you look at it, this kitchen is destined for great things!!

It glows...

This is our house yesterday as the sun was setting... I really love how the bricks light up in the late afternoon sun!!

I wasn't too excited about the limited range of bricks that we had to choose from (limited in that we had decided not to upgrade on bricks). All of the bricks that I really liked were from category 5 and 6 and I didn't dare ask what it would cost to upgrade... In the end it came down to two choices, both were reddish, and we made an 'on-the-spot' decision to go with the Red-Gum (from Austral). I liked the choice well enough, but didn't expect them to look as good as they do.

I can't wait for the garden to grow a bit more to hide the great big windows though... (I have been wondering if getting them tinted might make them look better.)

Patio Improvements and more...

Yesterday I decided to dress up the patio with some hanging pots...

We'd been out to watch a dog show and dropped into a big garden shop on the way home. Inspired by the gorgeous flowers that were out I decided that some hanging pots on our patio fence would dress up the area nicely. However I wasn't inspired by that shops high prices and instead went to Bunnings when we got home.

I came back (after more than an hour and a half of picking up a plant, putting it in my trolley, walking around with it, putting it back, picking something else up... It takes quite some time to shop in this fashion) and set to work to create this...





Can't remember what these are but I think they are a type of petunia (much smaller flower though...)


Fuscias...


Red petunias... (not my first choice but I wanted colour without cost...)


This morning I potted a few more plants (there are still about 10 plants left that need to be planted either in pots or the ground very soon) into ceramic and terracotta pots that have been taking up space in the garage. They need some pot feet to raise them off the concrete and maybe a few rocks in the top (like the one to the front which has been in that pot for a while - and is finally growing back after getting covered in concrete dust from the neighbours brickies) but I think that this little corner looks great!










While I was shopping and working on the patio yesterday, Bryan was creating this out the front...


It's the narrow strip to the left (north) of our driveway - the rest is the neighbours land. He's been trying to get this bit done before the landscapers for the neighbours block came in to do the front. It really finishes off the front and works in really well.







Now I'm going to have a late breakfast on my lovely patio... :)

Landscaping progress...

I haven't updated for quite some time and so we have some significant progress to show...

• Our front yard now has it's rock mulch installed
• Our side path is completed
• the narrow garden on the north fence beside the patio is finished
• the vegie garden is done;
• we've solved a drainage problem along the back fence; and
• we now have a clothesline.

So enough words and onto the pictures...

The front yard has gone from this...


To this...




















The narrow side...






The patio area...




The vegie garden (bricked by my Dad and I)...










And the back fence...






There's still a long way to go... and eventually I want to be able to remove the 'dog-keep-out' fences from around the vegie garden and the back fence strip but it's so good to see some progress!!! And I must admit that getting out there watering in the mornings inspires me to do more.