It’s been one of those days to just stay inside and huddle up from the cold here, today. I figured it’d be a perfect time for an update post.

I did venture just outside the back door to show you how our backyard is coming along since we started tackling the mess:

As you can see, it’s still quite the blank canvas. But the exciting news is that it’s now ready to grow some lawn on the dirt patch you see (formerly waist-deep weeds and thorns), some hedges and fruit trees! I cannot wait until we realise our dream for our kids to interrupt their outdoor play to stop, pick a fruit of their choice from a tree and sit underneath munching happily.

If you remember my freshly crushed pot-pourri from a few days, I have an update on that too. I was wondering out loud if it was ok to use freshly crushed petals for a pot-pourri, but was willing to experiment, given the amount of poo stench our animals and children were belching out! Well, I’m happy to say that after a few days, it’s drying out beautifully. See?

I’m still leaving it sitting on the kitchen bench and crushing it to release more scent. As Marilyn pointed out, you can also use essential oils to freshen up the scent too.

I also mentioned that I wanted to start drying some flowers. Well, Missy 9 and I were very busy yesterday afternoon picking this:

I wish you could smell this. It’s all we can smell in our house at the moment. Missy 9 also helped me to bunch up the lavender and hang it in the studio to dry:

More on this after it’s nice and dried out!

I’m also thrilled to announce that Team Ivy reached it’s goal of $5,000! I’m so amazed and proud of what Tiffany has acheived with one idea. I’m also proud of Nuffnang for donating the last $500 once donations reached $4,500! It makes me love being a blogger all the more.

I’ve also upgraded the survey for Hear Mum Roar, as I know it wasn’t so easy originally for many of you to put a variety of answers in. I couldn’t change it with the platform I was using, so I’ve changed to another, and now, as far as I know, it’s working how it should be. So please, don’t be shy, tell me what you love or hate about this blog! I’m enjoying reading the answers so far, as it’s really helping me to know what you want more of.

Talk to you soon!