I wasn't put on this earth to bake white bread

We've spent a lot of time recently discussing work, art and what makes us happy after dinner. If I had a pound for everytime someone has said "in the current economic climate" to me at work, I'd be able to achieve the eudaimonia I can't get my family and friends to agree could be achieved if I could work half-time, garden an acre while the sunshines and paint or sew in my sunroom on the days when it didn't. I still think it would be worth trying!

At a course I attended recently, the key speaker - ad-libbing admirably as the lighting, projector and microphones failed on him in turn - said he thought the only explanation he could offer for his amazing creativity was that he wasn't put on this earth to bake white bread. I am not sure that I'd go along with the notion that style is innate or somehow destined but am sure some of us are simply less satisfied with the ordinary than the rest of the world.

At the moment, as well as tackling the numerous ufos or unfinished objects - the oldest of which are over seventy years in the making and inherited - in my possession, I am also trying to decide what it is that I make that gives me the most pleasure. Is it the cushions I and the cats use everyday? Is it the paintings I invariably recycle once I regard them as finished or unfinishable? The quilts on the bed? The clothes I wear or the gifts I make for others?

Much of what's been on the radio - could we please have a more intelligent rent a philosopher than Alain de Boring she pleads - has concentrated on the status and interaction with other people work brings. Having had the misfortune to read Marx and Engels at school, I am not keen to define people by what they make. However, there is something about the tangible making of stuff that I do at home which transforms labour into lesuire despite the tight deadlines I seem to find myself trying to meet!

Things Made

These are the two projects I've made so far from Amy Butler's 'Little Stiches for Little Ones.' I originally made the jumper dress/pinafore because I found the gorgeous Liberty print in my local fabric shop. This was before my cousin let me know that her baby was a boy - hence the switch to the Kimono PJ's pattern and the tractor print. My eldest younger brother loved "tadders" as a baby. He's slightly less fun to make for now as his tastes are pretty dull:

I've just got a copy of Heather Ross's 'Weekend Sewing' and am looking forward to making various gifts ands her summer blouse.

Thrifty Gardening

I've been really impressed by "Thrifty Gardening" by Alys Fowler - one of the presenters on Gardener's World. It's a very timely publication as the country's twin obsessions seem to be GYO and the credit crunch. And even if it weren't with the zeitgeist, no one wants to grow strawberries at £2 something each!
Luckily, I know a number of very keen allotment gardeners and inherited a pile of useful things behind the garden shed from the previous custodian of the garden.
Thus far, I have created a fruit cage to contain the strawberries and fruit bushes from net that came with the property and value plastic clothes pegs:

I also managed to cobble together some netting over the Link-a-board raised bed which came cheap on a newspaper promotion using plastic hosepiping to support it purchased for a pound from the local poundland:

To the left you can see the progress the onions, rocket and Osaka greens are making in the top of the larger bag garden. I'll post an update when I plant the dwarf french beans into the sides of the bag.