Balcony make-over.

I took advantage of the beautiful autumn weather on Friday to do a spot of gardening. I thought I would share with you some photos from my balcony garden, and save my vegetable garden photos for later in the week.

I have a reasonably sized balcony that I love very much. I really don't think I would survive living in the city if I didn't have my own outdoor space where I could potter about and grow things. Our balcony space sort of makes an L shape around the side of our apartment, and is lined with pots of different size and colour.

Friday morning I took a trip to the local garden centre and picked up some plants suitable for the approaching winter months. These mostly included pansies and roses, my two favourite blooms (I think this comes from my English blood)!

I had to carry bags of potting mix and flowers up our (multiple) flights of stairs, but it was well worth the sore legs and achy back...

~ My favourite place to eat breakfast ~

~ My herb garden ~

~ My bulbs are sprouting ~

~ My dwarf lemon tree ~

~ Strawberry plant and a few rouge bulbs ~

~ Just in case you were concerned, Prada is wearing a 'tiny dog' sized body lead. This means we can let her out on the balcony to get some fresh air and sun, while preventing her from jumping onto (and god forbid over) the wall of our balcony ~

How does your garden grow? Are you like me and approaching the cooler months? Or are you finally seeing the sun again after months of snow?

Sam xox

The perfect evening.

The perfect way to spend an autumn evening...

Sam xox

Growing in my bathroom.

Sam xox

$5 Flowers.

Walking past the train station on the way home from training yesterday, I couldn't resist pausing to check out what the flower man had to offer.

I don't often buy flowers as they are usually too expensive to justify, but these beauties I couldn't pass up.

Their perfume is incredible!

In other exciting news, those vintage patterns I bought of Etsy finally arrived! After the 2 week mark I was beginning to worry that they would never reach me...! They are all so cute and I can't wait to try them out!

I absolutely love this jiffy dress pattern, I think this will be the first one I make.

Better go get ready for work... thats right... work on a Saturday. At least it only comes around every eight weeks :-)

Sam xox

Spring is here.

There is really something about the first day of Spring. The sun feels a little warmer, the birds sing a little louder and our moods lift...

Sadly I missed out on most of this today as I had to attend work training. Being couped up inside a space the size of a kitchen for 8 hours really put a dampener on my Springtime skip (the training was, however, amazingly valuable for my work practice).

To try and restore balance to my first Spring day for 2010, I came home and sat in my garden ... well ... my tiled three-story high garden.

Oh Spring, how I have missed thee!

Sam xox

Home.

I had a bit of a 'homey' day yesterday. I spent the morning writing a job application, and then shared a lovely lunch with Michelle down at our local beach. I love that it is the middle of May but the weather is still warm and sunny enough to spend a day at the beach.

We then went back to her apartment and spent two hours on YouTube watching original Julia Child 'The French Chef' TV episodes - very funny!

I arrived home to find our first delivery from Aussie Farmers Direct. Prada seemed excited about it too.

Lifting the cardboard lid, I was delighted to find this....

Cooked with the potatoes, corn and carrots last night, and they were super fresh! Better than our local supermarket (I swear the stuff our supermarket sells has been frozen for half a year before they put it out for sale)!

Oh, forgot to mention, look at the beautiful Sweet Peas Michelle gave to me! I have had a very difficult week with personal matters, and she knew just what to do to brighten my day. Aren't friends so special like that?

I had fun putting a few stalks into a little vase I picked up at a second hand shop for 50c.

Continuing on with my 'homey' mood, I managed to rope my husband in to spring cleaning our kitchen with me. He was not happy about it at first, but after a while I think he really got into it, re-organising the electrical cords on our appliances, setting up a more functional coffee making area, and generally being the heavy lifter when I wanted big objects moved.

Here is the beautiful clean site that greeted me this morning...

Prada seems impressed with the new setup too but "Get off the bench you filthy thing!" It would appear that I still have some work to do on pet discipline...

Sam xox

One of my photographs is famous.

You know how I said in my last post that I have an Etsy store, well one of my photographs were featured on Clever Corner's blog today in her weekly Top 10 feature!

I am thrilled that someone liked my photo enough to put it on their blog :-)

If you want to check it out, here is the link:

http://cleverscorner.blogspot.com/2010/04/tuesdays-top-10_27.html

Sam xox