New Beginnings

I have always loved working with my hands; from gardening to all things DIY.

But the past two years I have been concentrating on re-decorating this old house we bought (tiling, painting, laying wooden floors) and getting the new extension sorted while also trying to sort out our garden and fence some of it in (fence the neighbours goats out more like).

But at the back of my mind I have yearned to to something more creative than making raised beds and fences!

So over the last couple of weeks I have gotten the chance to try out some of my ideas and as scary as it sounds in my head I have decided to open a Facebook page and 'inflict' my ideas on others.

I started with my easiest idea.....

Heart on a String Chalk Board

Then ventured into letters...

Then decided I would stick the chalk board and letters together....

 

So 'Little Crafts' was born....

I would love if you had a look and if you like what you see please feel free to 'like' my page : ))

-----------------------------------------------------------

Back to the gardening the last time I posted here I had chitted the potatoes, not much has changed since.
Although the potatoes are ready to be planted but their raised beds are not, just yet.

I have 4 tonne bags of top soil sitting outside waiting to be distributed among the sunken beds and I have the final raised bed to make/put in place.

When I get this bed in place I will have six 16ft x 4 ft beds in our garden. Plenty for crop rotation in the future!

Last year I promised myself that I would start sowing my seeds early but I have only managed to sow our Peas and Tomato seeds this week! (bad gardener).

We have been saving our toilet roll holders for the Peas!

So this fortnight, with the help of the boys (who are on school holidays) I hope to weed and refill all of the raised beds, plus make and fill the last remaining one. Then we can plant our spuds!

Now, back to the scribbling/sketching of ideas for my 'Little Crafts' eeek.

Wooden Gates finished

A couple of posts ago I blogged about making a wooden fence, but without its gate.

Finally getting to blog about the finished product.

After a little bit of research I figured out how to put it together so that it wouldnt fall apart (well heres hoping anyway).

I put the frame together first before adding the fence posts.

Then put the hinges on and stuck it up!

 As you can sorta make out from the photo above I did place the hinges in the wrong place (left gate)on first attempt.

Next thing a latch, a drop bolt and a bolt for locking them.

I have to put another drop bolt on the left gate as there is still a bit of movement when it is very windy out (spotted it yesterday during a torrential downpour).

After that I have to dig out where the dropbolts are entering the ground (just a hole in the gravel at present) and put in a small rectangle of concrete to give the drop bolts a nice new solid home.

And thats it finished! no more goats entering the veg garden this way! and alot more privacy and security this side of the house.

Fence making; DIY style

I was going to write a big explanation about this DIY job, but I think I will just let the pictures do the 'talking'. After pricing fence panels etc we decided it was alot cheaper for us to make our own. So we bought all the wood in bulk, storing it in our large shed (a big plus when we were buying this property in 2010).

Our stock of treated wood



Clearing the ditch (view 'up' the garden) '11

Ditch cleared, posts & sheep wire up(view 'down' the garden) '11 

All nice & neat (view 'down' the garden) '11

Posts in; cement filled around them '12

 

My 'baby'

12' lengths halved & shaped

Bulk painting

Drying out

Putting the fence together

View 'up' the garden

Had a little help turning the corner

All finished, 100ft of fencing. For this part of the garden all I have to do now is to make a gate; but thats another days work methinks.