New pants

New pants
Originally uploaded by redmag

I made these over the weekend - I used the same general pattern I used for the brave new pants but allowed some extra room for juicy thighs. The brave new pants - made with the beautiful lara cameron fabric - couldnt be worn for a few weeks - somehow I hadnt allowed enough room to get the elastic over the thighs - fortunately he learnt to crawl quite soon after their construction and thighs slimmed down quite considerabley (Note to self - crawl more each day!)

These pants are made from a heavy canvas/denim I got it from an opshop so I'm not 100% sure what it is but i liked the colour and it looked nice after it had been washed - so hopefully they will stand the test of crawling. I used a simple red biasing binding to hem them.

Tomatillos

Tomatillos
Originally uploaded by redmag

Our first tomatillo harvest - it did take much longer than i thought it would, possible because its been much cooler this summer than is normal with lots of overcast grey rainy days. Hopefully it will have been worth the wait. We're making pork and green sauce tonight for dinner with mexican rice - I'll let you know how it goes!

Cutest Robot

Cutest Robot
Originally uploaded by redmag

This little guy was an impulse purchase from moonmum. He's georgeous and her stuff is fabulous - very cool cards and small gifts. Unfortunately the gloomy raining weather made it hard to take a good photo, but you get the idea.

Our fresh tomatillos

Our fresh tomatillos
Originally uploaded by redmag

We planted these for the first time this year - having never done it before this is proving to be a journey into the unknown.

I have to say - I love them!!!!!!!!!
......well I love watching them grow. They are much more beautiful than the tomatoes, zucchinis and cucumbers we planted. They're tall and elegent and the tomatillos grow inside these georgeous little lantern looking sacks. I cant wait to pick the first one!

We've been exploring mexican cooking lately, which is actually why we decided to grow these ourselves - we'd had trouble buying the canned tomotillos. My experience of Mexican food had been limited to tacos anf burritos and i had been underwhelmed.

But then we bought a great book, "1,000 Mexican recipes" by Marge Poore... and everything has proven to be a winner - so much so we've had to start growing our own produce!!

The Koala

Koala - A candid shot
Originally uploaded by redmag

I finally finished a design for an Australian animal. I'm not sure why it was important for me to do one - I think it has something to do with wanting to create things for my son which he might actually see one day.

Over Christmas went hired a holiday house and an Echidna made an appearance on Xmas eve. I was clearly more excited than him but it got me thinking that maybe I should leave the softie versions of reindeer and polar bears to those up North and concentrate on things I know. So I did.

For those of you who have looked through my flickr pages you might remember my legless first attempt at a Koala - with his garish recycled curtain body and ears.

This little guy was actually started out completely independent of that one. I'd made a lion based on my cat design and decided that it might look better with a proper body - with big paws. That attempt merged into this one - although this one has a larger bottom as a Koala is slightly more sedentary than a Lion. I think he's pretty cute - He's also a nice size and shape for hugging.

I'm also experimenting with faces - Its subtle but you'll notice his eyes have little white pupils which make him look cheeky rather than the robot-like blank eyes of my previous toys (which is ok coz most of them are robots) I've been perusing old children’s books for ideas.

His name is Casey and is in the shop. I think I might make him some friends...next time I'm going to use more than two different fabrics. Maybe a mother and baby Koala?

But that can wait because we've all been sick in quick succession for the past week and a half and I'm a bit over it....so while I had grand plans for making a load of toys over the long weekend this is all I managed.

Another 6.5 stitches cardigan

Another 6.5 stitches cardi
Originally uploaded by redmag

I finally finished my second one of these. While the first one I knitted stills fits in the arms, it is starting to look more like a crop top than a cardigan in the body region and needed to be retired.

This time I've used a bright red cotton so that it wont be too 'heavy' over the coming summer months. I had originally planned to use wooden toggles for buttons again but I found these big white plastic buttons at Lincraft and thought they'd look cute.

Again impatience and poor planning means that I haven’t added the fabric panel - but given its going to worn over the summer months the fabric really isn’t needed.

I can't explain how much I love this pattern - its easy and a great shape. The simpleness of the design means that the choice of wool and button can influence the final look quite significantly.

Our first harvest

Our first harvest
Originally uploaded by redmag

Zucchini's from our garden - with 100s more on their way!
I have no idea what to do with them?

These ones were used in a creamy summer veggie pasta (cream, zucchini, peas, parms), and a feta mint yellow zest and zucchini pizza.

I'm hoping to pickle some over christmas break - if anyone knows of any good quick recipes/tricks I'd be very happy to hear them.