Real Estate Sales Me

I know - it has been ages but I have been trying to come to grips with my new role. The new office is wonderful and the staff are all incredibly professional, caring, and generous people..it is nice to be working there.

Work -I have had some mild success I signed up my very first property to sell in just two weeks, and it will be an auction ( so if any of you are looking for a lifestyle change - watch out for a tearoom, residence and vacant block for that organic vegetable garden - all just 35 minutes from Brisbane CBD). Work wise things are great.

House - the dust storm, school holidays and me working my little behind off (more about that in a later paragraph) have taken a toll on my home - remember those "honesty shots" almost a year ago??? Well the sewing room looks not quite as bad as that but the garden is worse. One day a week just isn't enough to keep everything under control.

Vegetable Garden - what vegetable garden? I have a few stalks of silverbeet, loads of Kale - (thanks Rhonda that stuff just grows its head off!!! been using it in spinach pie type things and fritattas.) And there are some volunteer tomatoes which are the sweetest tasting tomatoes I have ever grown so not exactly sure where they came from!!!!

Garden - the roses are blooming their heads off and the hedge row roses have their first flush of flowers - they are so lovely they only flower for about three weeks a years but when they do it is gorgeous, and the jacaranda is coming out in bloom as well so the garden - from a distance- looks pretty good.

Me - I went to the agents launch of a property the other day and was sent some photos - I knew I was fat but oh my gosh so am embarking on a look after me campaign. Started eating breakfast again, packing snacks and lunch, booked in for yoga on Mondays and will walk/run five times a week. My new boss is very keen on the idea of incorporating your fitness times into your weekly schedule - so I booked myself in for a Seasonal Way seminar on Thursday this week a kick start to looking after myself and guess what ? He starts an eight week sales training session that day!!!!!

Sewing - what sewing? The photo at the top of the page is an original design put out under my business name Daisy Mountain Designs - it has sold very well and I love walking into someones sewing room and seeing it up on the wall.....but there are times when I can't believe that I designed it and found the time to stitch it and package it and well be creative.

The Moral of this Post - if health is all about balance and moderation - I am taking up woodwork to learn how to make a big box - because I am going to need it!!!LOL Oh don't get me wrong I eventually get everything done and everything under control but there is always something that has to give including blogging but mostly it is me and what I need or want to do. I think I have discovered that the purpose of my life this time around is learning to find balance - if I was a cynic I would say I might have to live this life a few thousand more times before I get it right.

But as in all large jobs it is easier to break it down so for today I will blog, I will walk/run, I will take my lunch and snacks to work, I will hand quilt tonight in front of tv, I will wash the kitchen floor before I go to work today, and when I bring the boys home from school I will plant the blueberries, cranberries and Taro I bought three weeks ago!!!!

Have a wonderful day...I know I will

daisymum

Still getting my hands dirty

I love growing potatoes in tyres it was the first vegetable gardening I ever did about 20 years ago and I have put some in every year since.

Most years I just used the ones I bought commercially that sprouted at the bottom of the vege drawer now I buy them certified organic from diggers, green harvest or The Tasmanian Potato Assoc.

The ones in here are from a friend of mine - they are colibans (he thinks) I will heap some more soil on them this afternoon, and some more mulch so that just the tops of those shoots are visible and then in a week or so I will add another tyre on top and top up the soil and mulch again. Last year some of my stacks got to four tyres high but mostly they top out at three. Once they flower and die down I leave them for a few weeks - although I read today in frost free climates you should cover the tops with a thick layer of mulch first to stop them re shooting - then knock over the tyres and pull out the potatoes.

This year I am also trialling a bed made up of hay bale sides and a deep deep soil - we will see what proves the best and easiest. I have used the rest of my tyres to plant out garlic, we will see if they like warm feet.

Here is the other vege bed (old vege garden site) you can see the corn, with more seeds coming up in front. Some tomatoes around the stakes at the back, broccoli and cabbage, this is where the kale and first rows of beetroot are as well.

These photos were taken early in the morning just as the first rays of the sun were hitting the garden. I love to wander out there with a cup of tea and pull out a few weeds or just look and dream and plan what I will do next or better, or differently.

For example next time this garden gets planted out I am going to only plant one thing in the whole space not loads like i do now - it works but I don't think I get the yeilds I should get.

We need loads of food for our lot so the garden bed above for summer will just be planted out the lettuce continuously one row a week across the bed until the autumn. And I want another bed for just tomaotes, one for cucumber, one for squash, my potatoes tyres will fit anywhere where the sun is so they are always easy and becasue they are moveable the soil is changed every planting season which I only found out today is another potato thing. you shouldn't grow potatoes in soil where potatoes have grown for three years !

Okay off to get some clothes folded and pressed for the week ahead we spent last night in Toowoomba for my BIL brithday party, coffee with friends this morning and then home to do some gardening - so try as I might can't put off the washing basket and ironing basket any longer!!

Daisymum

Tuesday

Yesterday when I got home from work I got into the paddock and put some lucerne bales (wet ones that are no good for feed ) around the vege garden then filled them with some more soil and manure that I had mixed together.

In went the carrots, parsnips and beetroot. I put in some cucumbers, and one of my sons bought home a half corrugated iron rain water tank (small) so I planted that out with some more corn (you can never have enough corn).

This afternoon I need to put up some frames and plant some peas and some eggplant. Then water everything and do some mulching.

So photos tomorrow of the new dasiy mountain vege patch.

Waiting now for the seed potatoes and some garlic to come from "green harvest online".

Gardening seems to be a lot about waiting............................

daisymum

And just to prove it wasn't a fluke.........

These slightly blurry shots are my Golden Beetroot - sewn direct!!!, and my miniature kale also sewn direct...............am I on a roll or what?

We have a busy weekend but I am still hoping to get some more gardening done, after I run all over the place on Saturday doing some jobs I need to do and attending another family party on Satrurday night, then Sunday daisyson12 has a trial game for rugby so we are off for a picnic and fishing after that (it is near the water). I wish I could have some time to sew this weekend but it doesn't look like that will happen....maybe next week.

Work is going well the new hours are WONDERFUL and knowing I am there everyday has helped me to be a bit calmer and more organised. I said on a comment this morning that I think I have found my rythym and it feels great. The little kids are happier now that I am home every afternoon when they get home, the house is happier, and the garden is doing well, just have to plan in some sewing time for me and life will be perfect!!!

have a fantastic weekend - try to plant seven seeds for the coming week - a seed a day.

daisymum

Progress Report

I put in a second row of climbing beans, a row of Dwarf Kale and a row of Golden Beetroot.

Thursday the plan is for a few more rows of some other stuff and as the beds are huge squares to place some stepping stones in between so i can "row hop" when they get bigger.

Some weeding done, a few pumpkin uncovered, more sleepers arrived for the new beds, and an order put in for more seed.

I even planted some seeds in tubes, some tomatoes two varieties.(wish them luck I am not good with seeds)

daisymum

dishwashers, garden soil and not coping..........

The new addition to the kitchen is installed and has washed its first load without a hitch ....although there were some funny moments as Daisyson20 and I tried to work out from the pictures in the book where the rinse aid stuff should go. On advice we used one part white vinegar to ten parts water, glasses were sparkly arkly so think it will be okay. I bought the environmentally friendly dishwasher soap with citrus but it STINKS!!! and I mean that literally it cleaned well enough but boy it pongs...apparently I will void the warranty of I use bicarb as it is an alkalai ( I knew that) and it might wreck the inside of the machine (didn't know that). I got a name brand machine that only uses 11.9 litres for an eco wash. That is MUCH less than two sink fulls of water that we need to wash up dinner , plus one for breakfast and lunch. So all in all I don't think I am being an environmental vandal but I am concerned that none of the dishwashers I looked at had a high star rating and a high water rating. It was either one or the other so I chose water - for us with tanks and a family of nine - it is very precious.

The other "first pay packet" purchase is a load of organic ( no man made chemical additives) garden soil - cost me an arm and a leg but I needed some soil for the vegetable garden - ours was only the soil that came from underneath the old chook pen. So the beds are full and I have some beans ready to go in this weekend and hopefully I will plant out some other seeds on Sunday to go in in a few weeks. I have been diligently reading my what to plant lists from Gardengate (thanks Stewart!) and I have a plan. When I get paid again I am buying another load of soil and building some more beds inside the orchard paddock - these will get more sun through winter and I think they will be our main beds for the cooler months then next summer it will be back to the old site which gets full sun and dappled shade, even the lettuce seemed to cope quite well through the heat. I figure this way I will always have beds spelling and being able to be renourished - which I didn't do before.

Not coping??? Well not really there just seems to be so many things to do on these two days off but I am sure by next week when I am not running back to prep at 11.30, and all the kids will be back into their normal routines I will find myself with those few extra hours I am craving to get everything just so.

I feel like I am so disorganised but in reality the house is clean and reasonably tidy, the washing is done and thanks to a few hours of sunshine today is dry, the folding well that is another story....... The kitchen thanks to the new dishwasher is cleaner than ever, and I managed to get my tax done finally!!!! So really I am in a good place.

I am a planner I like to know I am ready for new changes and after coming home from holidays and going straight to work, I didn't get to do that. So off to take stock of where I am actaully at and get this house "Friday" clean. Then I will do some sewing work that has come in, cancel my ad in the local paper because I know now I cannot keep my sewing business going along with working outside and inside my home. In actual fact this will be a relief I always felt I had to work hard to build my business but now I am working and I get paid well for what I do it is so much easier. So I will tidy up these few jobs and that will be it.

Why the photo of "my mountain" well this is what I look at when I sit in those white metal chairs, I love the moods of my mountain and while this morning he was glum and drippy and brooding, this afternoon he is bathed in sunshine, and seems light and happy - guess who feels the same way.

Thank you for taking the time to share my world

daisymum

And now for something completely different........

This gorgeous little thing is the handmade handbag that I received as my secret santa gift at out patchworkers Christmas party yesterday.

It was made just for me by a lovely lady in our group who makes the most extraordinary handbags in fabric and leather. I am so thrilled with this it is just the same colour as four tops that I live in over summer so it will be well used.

CHRISTMAS TRIVIA: "RUDOLPH THE RED NOSED REINDEER"

The Chicago-based Montgomery Ward company, department store operators, had been purchasing and distributing children's coloring books as Christmas gifts for their customers for several years. In 1939, Montgomery Ward tapped one of their own employees to create a book for them, thus saving money. 34-year old copywriter Robert L. May wrote the story of Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer in 1939, and 2.4 million copies were handed out that year. Despite the wartime paper shortage, over 6 million copies had been distributed by 1946.May drew in part on the story "The Ugly Duckling" and in part from his own experiences as an often taunted, small, frail youth to create the story of the misfit reindeer. Though Rollo and Reginald were considered, May settled on Rudolph as his reindeer's name.
Writing in verse as a series of rhyming couplets, May tested the story as he went along on his 4-year old daughter Barbara, who loved the storySadly, Robert Mays wife died around the time he was creating Rudolph, leaving Mays deeply in debt due to medical bills. However, he was able to persuade Sewell Avery, Montgomery Ward's corporate president, to turn the copyright over to him in January 1947, thus ensuring May's financial security.May's story "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" was printed commercially in 1947 and in 1948 a nine-minute cartoon of the story was shown in theaters. When May's brother-in-law, songwriter Johnny Marks, wrote the lyrics and melody for the song "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer", the Rudolph phenomenon was born. Turned down by many musical artists afraid to contend with the legend of Santa Claus, the song was recorded by Gene Autry in 1949 at the urging of Autry's wife. The song sold two million copies that year, going on to become one of the best-selling songs of all time, second only to Bing Crosby's "White Christmas". The 1964 television special about Rudolph, narrated by Burl Ives, remains a holiday favorite to this day and Rudolph himself has become a much-loved Christmas icon.

THE GARDEN: My yellow squash has taken over the vegetbale garden it is growing like the plant in the Doctor Who Episode "the Day of the Triffids" I am continuing to harvest tiny little yellow zucchinis and cut them up for salads, or as "sticks for dips". That crazy bonus eggplant plant is producing one or two for kitchen per day, the tomatoes I have harvested and am waiting for them to ripen there are heaps out there and with the sun today more will be ready to come off the plants this afternoon.

And growing over all of this is the yellow squash with tiny wee little squash on it - I love yellow squash they are my favourite vegetable.

The lettuce is going great guns and tipping them out and harvesting from the sides seems to be stopping them going to seed at this stage.

I accidentally pulled up an onion yesterday it was really little but there was one there!!!

The potatoes well they are huge the ones in the tyres just keep growing I have added a third tyre to the stack (and am thinking of a fourth as the plant is almost a metre out of the top), no sign of yellowing off yet and the new ones are going great guns so hopefully we will have potatoes for most of the next few months.

My pan for today is to clean, get some baking done, weed when it is cooler, iron while we watch some silly Christmas movies,and mainly to relax into my Christmas holidays with the daisies.

Have a fantastic day - I have something really interesting for the Trivia post tomorrow. Hope you are enjoying it. Welcome to the new commenters and some new visitors who have shown up on the feedjit thingy, please feel free to leave a comment or just introduce yourself.

daisymum