HB Day 3: Seed Organisation

Seed Organisation for the novice gardener!

I'm a girl that likes organisation, in fact, I thrive on it. If its not organised, chaos rules and I get overwhelmed and find it too hard to get anything done! I figured if I have to charged with all things garden while my sweet my is in Singapore I am going to have to have the planting and seeds organised otherwise it just won't get done! If the seeds are sitting in a box they will probably be forgotten and I will have to spend extra money on getting seedlings as opposed to planting my own.

Thank heavens bhg have a great idea that will solve my organisational issues AND remind me when seeds need to be planted!  I love the idea of having ribbons hanging for each month of the year pegged with the seeds that need to be planted then .... what a cool idea and such a pretty way to organise them too!  The bhg idea is also pinned to my Outdoor Spaces board on Pinterest.  We do have a potting shed out the back, it needs some work, A LOT of work and you will see it next week as the overhaul on it begins.  In the meantime I have hung my handy dandy seed ribbons inside the back door.

Supplies

This is a great project if you are a wannabe gardener but have limited knowledge on planting times.  It also uses everyday items that can be quickly put together to organise the seeds, something I am really appreciating at the moment :)  The hardest part of this project was reading the back of the seed packets and then assigning them to their appropriate month!  Most of the seeds had multiple months on them so I just attached the seed pack to the first month that germination could be done and figured
I could move the seed packet over to the next month once I had done the first planting ... sounds good in theory anyway ;)

Thanks to bhg for making this novice garden much more organised and if anyone comes over they'll think I am SO green fingered ... I won't tell if you don't!

HB Day 2: Companion Planting

The veggie patches ready for winter crop picking!

I don't have green fingers, I never have.  I find it extremely ironic that both my green fingered mum and sister are both in Singapore and I am the one here surrounded by gardens that need cultivating and planting with winter veggies.  I started with composting all the veggie patches then wondered what one should do next.  Luckily the local garden centre helped me with the guidance and purchasing of veggies suitable for this time of the year.

I know my mum is hugely into planting things next to things that help each other grow and deter pests.  Apparently this is called companion planting, a subject I know next to nothing on.  Lucky for me I am on a first name basis with a site that has the answer to every predicament, Pinterest!  If you pop companion planting into their search engine all sorts of beautiful and informing imagines come up to greet you.

Now the reason Pinterest and I are such firm (firm) friends is I'm a visual girl, so the info-graphic put together by Lifehack was just the ticket!  My workforce was of a younger nature today so I know they also appreciated the visual guide as opposed to a written article ;)  The linked image is also pinned to my Outdoor Spaces board on Pinterest.

The perfect companion planting info-graphic you can source from lifehack.

With my newfound wealth of information on companion planting, I sat down and drew a rough sketch and made a list of all the plants I had purchased.  With the info graphic I gradually made a plan making sure I put plants that got along next to one another. I also learnt that plants love having nasturtiums and marigolds around because it helps keep the pests away, so I made sure we added some of those to each garden!

Then I rounded up the workforce and we placed the plants out before planting them in our newly cultivated land! Only time will tell whether I have managed to successfully plant out our winter veggies but I will keep you updated. What we do know is thanks to Lifehack these crops have a fighting chance as they have been planted near friends and removed from foes. Amazing, even plants have their clicks. I guess all living things have their social grievances, if we could all just get along planting and life would be so much easier!

HB Day 1: The Story of My Hawkes Bay Day Placemats

This is a great solution ... EVEN for boys ;)

As with all decisions we make, each has its ups and downs. One of the downs for our decision to move to the Hawkes Bay has been "the work compromise". As a home schooling mum, we live on one income, which needless to say we value greatly! My husband, Steve, has a great job that he enjoys located in Auckland and we didn't want to give that up moving here, so we haven't. It's a one hour flight commute he does at the beginning and end of each week and lives in what we affectionately call "the box" while he is in Auckland. It is a tiny room in an apartment building, it isn't ideal but it works well enough for him to continue working in Auckland.

We miss him heaps during the week, but things like Skype, phone calls, and emails really help.  Each day Steve chats with the kids and always asks what they have been up to ... it's fair to say he gets a mixed response to this question depending on how tired the peeps are and how distracted they are by other things ;)  I wanted to make sure that Steve didn't miss out on the everyday things from not only my point of view but also from the peeps.  As always I found the answer on Pinterest!

Positively Splendid had a guest post from Kiki Creates for dinner time doodle mats that were designed to keep kids entertained before dinner was served.  The idea is also pinned to my Ideas for Organisation board on Pinterest.  She has several free designs that are free to print off and laminate for your own peeps.  I loved the placemat she designed as a comic strip so kids could draw the "story of their day".

I figured this was something the peeps would love to do as they enjoy drawing and it would provide a visual aide when they Skype with their Dad and he asks the inevitable question "so what did you get up to today".  I have limited supplies at the moment with the household in storage so I went to the local library and created a comic strip for telling the story of "our Hawkes Bay day" and printed several off for the peeps to use. No laminator at hand so the peeps, are using a new print each day.  Once the laminator finds its way to Otane I will make permanent placemats, which they will use whiteboard markers on and clean off each morning.

My thanks to Positively Splendid and Kiki Creates for sharing this awesome idea. I love ideas that provide kids with different ways of communicating and this one definitely fits that bill!

Pollyanna busy at work .. Uh, I mean play!

Photos of the Project!

Thanks to some very sound advice (thanks Jenny!) I am making progress on adding photos to my blog more easily using my iPad ... I know it's shocking that I am this technically poor but I really am! Any ho, below are some of the house and also a map that shows our move from Auckland to the Hawkes Bay. The piece of artwork was done by Brian Looker, the artist we purchased the Orphanage from and was the piece i asked to be left behind as part of the chattels. its Autumn in New Zealand so the trees are slowly losing there leaves which is a shame because they look so pretty at the moment! Later today I will post the first of 365 Pinterest inspired projects for this year!

It's nice to be BACK

St Hilda's Orphanage

So we are back, we have moved, and we are excited to share our journey of settling into our new house and region with you here.  We have moved from one side of the North Island to the other to be closer to family.  We also had another motive and that was to work towards a better lifestyle, more time, more space, less hustle, less stress, more fun and relaxation ... We can only but try ;)

 We have been very blessed with finding the right home on the market when we were needing to buy!  It turns out it is nothing like what we intended to buy but when everybody loves it and you can't imagine another house matching it ... well ... who are we to argue with fate!  The house was originally built as an orphanage in 1894 and is nestled in a gorgeous little village.  It is known as St Hilda's and its latest reinvention was as an art gallery with a live-in artist.  Brian Looker, does gorgeous work and we made sure a piece of his art was part of the settlement so the house would continue to have a part of its most current history.

It's had a lot of love over the years and it still needs some more.  It needs completely rewiring and, thanks to toughened insurance policies, all the scrim removed.  Apart from that the rest of the house has stood the test of time and just needs modifying to meet the needs of our family.  As many of you know I live in an extended family situation with my husband Steve, two peeps Benjamin and Pollyanna, my sweet mum Dianne, and our black cat Cookie.  The peeps are home schooled and we love having family, friends, and extras to stay and this house caters for all of that and more.  It has five bedrooms, a lounge, family room, and an open plan dining and kitchen.  Did I say how grateful this house was on the market just when we needed it?!?

You can see why we need rewiring!

To make things just a little complicated, we have decided to wait to move our furniture in until all the scrim is removed, the electrics have been renewed, and the house has been carpeted.  So we are currently camping in one room of the house ... literally.  That means the early days of pinteresting this 365 days will include a lot of outdoor activities, ideas that will help our current living situation, and things that I am using with regards to the peeps education! 

There are only two photos because i am technically inept and cant figure out how to add photos and scroll from my ipad to my blog ... i will work on my ineptness over this afternoon and see if i cant figure it out for tomorrows posting so you can see the progress!! All my posts are being done on my iPad, which I don't really know how to use!  Hoping that as we gradually get all our belongings out of the storage unit, the computer will turn up sooner rather than later to making blogging SO much easier!  

Making a comeback ... A year of house renovations Pinterest style

YES!  We have sold our house, moved across country, purchased an orphanage built in 1894, and it needs major renovations!  Stay tuned, we start next week with handover date on the twelfth, this blog will be back live and daily from the fifteenth ....

For a year of Pinterest style renovations, recipes, and outdoor solutions ... CAN'T WAIT!

pallet wood art

aahh, the joy of having a pile of pallets to use on ... well ... anything!

we are totally getting into pallet wood creations in this neck of the woods.  steve and i have been thinking up all sorts of ideas and projects to make with this collection of pallets we were given by some awesome friends ... part of the deal with getting these pallets was returning some of them in the form of cape cod chairs, we will get to that i promise sue!

so many friends and family wanting steve to get busy and make some more ... hint, hint honey!

but for today we are into making some art for ben's bedroom wall with the pallets.  all you need for this project are the top slats of the pallet.  so your first job is to take them off as carefully as you can with a crowbar or similar.

next you need a thin piece of mdf the size of the artwork you are making.  this acts as the base of the project and will be what the pallet slats are glued to.  find a place to work and have your mdf laying flat then start laying the slats in rows along the mdf, making sure to fill the entire board with pallet wood.  for interest make sure you have the pallet wood at all sorts of lengths so the joins aren't symmetrical.

these stencils we made ourselves by choosing a font, printing them out on card and then using a craft knife to cut the letters out, leaving their silhouette.  we have used them heaps and they continue to do a great job.

once you have the slats where you want them go at it with some stencils and spray paint and work your magic :)  we decided to use ports around the world as ben's room has a bit of a travel thing going on and the pallet wood makes me think of big packing crates ready to ship off around the world ... remember the old tea chests, that's'a what i'm thinkin!

spraying painting over, time to tackle the overhangs with a saw and fix it down to your baseboard.

once the spray painting is complete cut any overhangs off and adhere to the mdf with liquid nails or similar.  once fixed, add some attachments to the back so you can hang your masterpiece :o)

and there it hangs ... cheap, fun pallet wood wall art :)

the edges have been sanded to add a nice finish to the piece ... best part is, ben loves it!