Christmas!

Hooray!!! Only 366 days to Christmas. I shall need every minute of it...

If you need to make a pudding for tomorrow's late Christmas celebrations, or you are going on a picnic make Granma's Christmas Pudding.
Here is the link to last year's story on it:
http://banaghaisge.blogspot.com/2009/12/granmas-christmas-pudding.html

Some of the Smellies and the Step Smellies are coming for dinner. Cold meats and salads, THE pudding, and also an icecream pudding (chocolate icecream on the outside with extra 'bits' in it - nuts, choc chips, mixed peel; and vanilla in the centre with extra cream and fruit mince (which has been bathing in a bucket of brandy for 5 months).

Oh - and we will open pressies!

My Sweetheart gave me a lovely camera. I left mine (accidentally) on the side of the road when we were filming/photographing the High Country Targa last month. Silly, totally idiotic thing to do. It wasn't until several days after we got home, and after The Great Flood, that I discovered it missing. Been too wet to recover it, not much point after several inches of rain - and then some - 300 kms away. This is the same (Fuji) only with twice the megapixels, a few more bells and whistles, and of course MUCH newer!
Shall be back to taking photos and adding them soon enough!

Merry little Christmas to all. Now I must get back to some kitchen fussings...

Decisions, decisions!

Or rather - indecisions...

What shall I do today?

The Sweetheart and I won tickets to an ABC preview of The King's Speech in the city tonight. What if, what if They spring Geoffrey Rush on us as a surprise? 'Cos at least he lives here the rest of the time therefore it isn't likely to be gasp swoon sultry brooding Mr Darcy Colin Firth who would have to be brought at great expense to the management from freezing cold England (though he may leap at the opportunity).

The other horn of this dilemma is that this arvo is the 159th anniversary of the Monster Meeting at Chewton when the gold miners started the revolt that led to Eureka Stockade - with TONY ROBINSON coming to film it all for the History Channel.

I love Tony Robinson. Who can ever forget all those wonderful laughs in Blackadder - many of them directed at poor Baldrick?

Here is a snippet - but don't let that prevent you from hunting down more episodes on Youtube. Or even going and buying the full set of Blackadder for yourself for Christmas.

After Blackadder, Tony Robinson went on to be the one who didn't do any hard work in The Time Team (that isn't true - he is one of the producers of the 15 series show as well as the delightful presenter!).

Oh, what shall I do? 

Of course it will be The King's Speech - I can wave to the Monster Marchers as I drive past them at Chewton on my way south. And then watch Tony Robinson's show on telly in a few years (if I find someone with the History Channel).

Floods...

We had 142mm of rain from Thursday night until Sunday evening! Yikes!! That is 568 points or 5.68" of rain in the old currency.

Saturday was Election Day (State Elections, don't talk to me about it - very sad face) and The Sweetheart and I went in to The Maine to vote, had a Proper Cooked Breakfast at Togs (yummo!) and then decided to go look at the spillway at the northern end of Cairn Curran Reservoir.
Cairn Curran has been dry for years, and in the last two months has gone from empty to OVERFULL on Saturday!
There is a great pic here of the dry lake bed, and Crikey has a bit written last week (they should have been here this week!!!).
Saturday when we got to the spillway we were met with all sorts of flashing lights - CFA, SES and Police - the dam was overfull and the sluice gates were being opened. The land below the dam wall was about to be flooded by the Loddon River water - and continues to head north towards the Murray River, wetting all sorts of towns, farms, houses and flooding roads on it's way.




Here is my dam on Saturday morning - the most water it has had in it in EIGHT years!

And here is my dam later on Saturday when it overflowed!

 The Loddon at Newstead got too big for it's banks and fell out all over the road and paddocks.

The highway was also blocked half way back into Castlemaine at Muckleford Creek until yesterday (Monday). The woman who owns the store and lives over the river took an hour to get to work on Sunday - via Franklinford, Castlemaine and Maldon!

A lot of people - far too many actually - tried to drive through flooded roads and got stuck. Or worse - swept away. Fortunately, nobody went missing but just caused a nuisance for the Police, SES, CFA etc who had to haul them out. Or leave them there....

 Coming home on Saturday from not seeing the spillway spilling we discovered our road was being washed out. All pretty scary really - we weren't in the big deal 4WD but in the very low to the ground 944, aaaghhh!!!


The water was rushing across the road on the left, down from the hill as well as rising up from the creek on the left hand side. The water on the right was coming down faster than it could get through the wire fence!

14.13 on 12.11.10

Oh bollocks! It clicked over to 14.14 as I hit 'publish blog'.
Sigh.
Never mind - there is always next year when I can blog at 15.14 on 13.12.11
I will start earlier.

Friday Funny

Every so often a lovely romantic song comes along that just grabs ya right where you need to be grabbed...
(this one probably aint it however)

Sewing, sewing, sewing!!!

Here is a wiki page with all the secrets of international sizing exposed!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EN_13402

I have been hunting out lots of different patterns for summer clothes - including what to wear to the Porsche Club Ball next month.

I am rather leaning towards this Butterick Retro with it's big flowy skirt and long wide wrap-around waist ties:
http://butterick.mccall.com/b4919-products-5273.php?page_id=152
You will have to go and look at it - can't seem to be able to whip an image from the site (but then I AM using the tiny notebook which is so small it hasn't learned to do some things...!).

And then I discovered this site:
http://m-sewing.com/
So very many FREE downloadable patterns there for just about everything you could desire to sew. Women's, men's, girls' and boy's patterns and everything from underwear to raincoats!
You possibly wont hear from me for a while...

Stephen Fry does it for me!

I do love Stephen Fry.

QI is one of the highlights of the television week, and it is all for his quick wit and erudite ramblings - love how his mind can whirl and twirl and land back on it's feet in the right place!
He recently came to Australia and gave performances in Sydney (filled the Opera House) and Melbourne.
The Sydney performance was shown as a snappy hour long tv show. Seemingly without edits. A great joy to see. Wish I had been able to go to his show. Or both of them would have been greedy but wonderful. Like second helpings of something with truffles...


Stephen Fry Kinetic Typography - Language from Matthew Rogers on Vimeo.

Halloween!!

And here is one for Halloween...

It maybe Halloween but really it is...

MALDON FOLK FESTIVAL!!!!

Hooray! It is that time of the year again when we all sit on the side of Mt Tarrengower and listen to wonderful music!

Here is a video of what life is like over a Maldon Folkie weekend, too:




It is just the BEST Festival - like a family reunion except you like everyone...

I am not one to ever whinge about rain but I would like to mention that there is up to 75mm (3") of rain forecast for the next two days with flood warnings, and sheep grazier alerts (where sheep farmers have to bring newly shorn sheep into shelter so they don't die from shock, etc) as well as all sorts of other sensible things like moving stock and equipment to higher ground.
I have planted seeds out in the garden - made another little bed around the bird bath.
And did three loads of washing so everything will be all dry and lovely before the cold and rain begin.

And you wont be hearing anything of me for a few days - I am Door Bitch at the Anglican Church again all day tomorrow. I have done this same security job for 10 or 12 years now. I really should be due for Long Service Leave... I was hoping it was going to be this year. Sigh.

Have a lovely weekend - see you at Maldon!

Me, and the Rich and Famous.

 Subtitled: Who is that up there with Jasmine?*


Last Sunday we did HEAPS of stuff.

Firstly we went to The Royal Exhibition Buildings in Carlton ("one of the world's oldest exhibition buildings").
There was a great show (Motorclassica) of veteran, vintage and classic cars. Some of the most expensive cars known to man!!!

And I got to meet my childhood hero!!!
A man who was my pinup boy when I was still in single figures, and who fed my yearning to be a racing car driver. Which, incidentally, has yet to be fulfilled - and I possibly have left the running (ha ha small bad pun) too late...though have done my share of marshalling, timing, navigating, et al at car thingies.

Here is (another out of focus) photo taken by The Sweetheart (I do not know what it is with him taking photos of me with Famous People - they are always out of focus. And worser cos he MAKES A BIT OF A LIVING taking photographs...).

Yep - me and Sir Stirling Moss! We had a nice conversation where I got to thank him for giving me so much delight over the years and for being a hero of mine. I don't believe many people get to tell the people they admire just how much they mean to them!

I was taught to drive in my teenage years by another famous (Australian) racing driver - Frank Coad. I went to school with his daughter and he was our local Holden dealer which made it much easier to learn - hooning around in their paddock in his race car...

Here is Stirling Moss's car which was at the show.














I was going to write a big deal post about all the things we did on Sunday but I reckon this is enough actually.
Me and my friend Stirling Moss.
(Oh bloody hell - I see I am the same age as his wife of 30 years.
Sigh.
Where was I in 1980????
Sigh.
Oh bugger - I know where I was...
Saving lives in refugee camps in the Thai Cambodian border and being shot at by drunken Thai soldiers.
Double sigh.

* Precis version of old joke:
Former Prime Minister Bob Hawke visited the Vatican and was leaning out a window with the Pope, waving to the crowd.
A couple of Aussies down in the square looked up and asked "Who is that up there with Hawkie?".

Gardening

This is what the garden looked like 12 months ago:

Garden end October 2009

And THIS is what it looks like now!!! 

End October 2010

I can't even get in to it to weed it - there are too many bees in all those weeds (I am REALLY allergic to bee stings ).

You can see that I haven't done too much to the old gate or the bit of netting... How embarrassment!

I need someone to come and help me. Who would like a little holiday in the bush? There are kangaroos and echidnas...

Even the trees in the bush behind look more lush. You can't see as much sky between the branches because there are so many more leaves on them! The understory has been a carpet of lovely wattles - different shades of gold in the greens and greys of the bush.

Anyway, please give me a yell if you would like to come and stay and help me do some gardening - it isnt actually onerous work. The garden bed is quite small really.

See you soon!!!!

Even MORE creativity!!

This is my sewing chair. It really needs some TLC.

Watch this space! Two projects (that you know of!!!!).

More creativity!

Yesterday I put a lot of my Sister's Choice blocks together.

Here it is hanging over the balcony.
Now it is up to 8 blocks by 10, the blocks are 8" (finished).
I have another 30 blocks so it is going to end up being 10 blocks by 13 which will make it 80" x 104" - that is a good size!

These are blocks made by my Best Sister, and my friend Trish. And me.
We have been making these and sharing them around for quite a while now.
Here are some more pics. Now each of my three sisters and my two sisters in law have one. Shall have to make one for The Sweetheart's baby sister, too. (She is only 24 (younger than most of our Smellies!) and we have only recently had her back in our lives. SHe is off to Europe in a few weeks so I shall make a Travelling Quilt firstly).

The white dangly bit on the top RH side isn't daggy threads - is the wiring from the sparkly Christmas lights which decorate my chandelier.

Sister's Choice

Getting creative

I rescued this drawer from my neighbour/cussie's bonfire. I reckon there is a shelf in this bit of kindling:

Upcycling at work!

I can see this with it's back off so the base part will be the front of the shelf and this side (ie the open top part of the shelf) will be against the wall. The bowed front has an overhang which will make a cute bottom shelf.
Might leave the knobs.
Might not.
Some paint. Some pretties...
Just you wait and see!!!

More spring!

It is really tough to grow anything here - this land was all sluiced in the goldrush days (from the 1850s) and there isn't any topsoil left.
I live right on the edge of the alluvial fields. Only a couple of kms out in the bush there are DEEP shafts - now fenced to stop animals (and people) falling down them. Wouldn't be much fun. I think there are more than a few "missing persons" who could be located down shafts around the district...

I have a great pile of dirt that came from the derelict goat pens that were here when I bought the place. I got the bloke with the bobcat to push it all into a great pile and then let it compost for a few years.
It is now my vege garden.

I had lots of lovely things growing last year  but there are too many bees there already for me to start weeding and planting. I have had a couple of cardiac arrests in the last ten years from bee sting reactions. I now carry TWO Epipens but I still live in fear of being stung when I am here alone. Pretty scared of being stung when I am with anyone else, too!!!

Capeweed

Look at my pretty petunias and snapdragons, grown from seed, in a tub by the front door.
There are also irises and some lavender in there which will soon be flowering.
Very pretty. Everything is abuzz with foraging bees. The paddocks are chockers with Capeweed. An awful pest, but it looks so lovely, and smells wonderful!

Spring is here!!!

Eight years ago I planted a row of lilacs.

These are the first flowers ever. Poor little plant is about a metre tall. This is a tough bit of land to grow anything really...

I thought since I missed the 2010 posting - not by much though :( - that I could post at 20 past 10.
Which would be 20.10.2010 at 10.20.

Stuff it, I can't stay awake any longer...
There is always 10.11.10 at 11.10 (or 10.11)

Look at the date!!!

And here it is - 20.10.2010! And hopefully I will post this at 2010...
(Buggeries, it ticked over to 2011 as I hit "publish post". All good intentions however...
As usual.
Sigh.

Last weekend was Mt Tarrengower Hill Climb, run by the VSCC (Vintage Sports Car Club of Victoria).
The last couple of years the Sweetheart and I have been Flag Marshalls 'up the hill'. This year we weren't able to be there for the weekend of fun (cos we went to Lake Boga for dinner on Saturday night to celebrate WATER IN THE LAKE!!

Dave Gittus loves his old bikes! He also restores old (and ancient) bikes. And is a great box player - always good to have at a session or party!), and used to be our Mayor.

This photo made it to a great half page spread (IN COLOUR!!!) in the local rag.
ON THE FRONT PAGE!!!!

You can check out more photos of the Hillclimb taken by The Sweetheart here .

This is our good friend John Needham, praying that this MG will have massive gear box failure as it flies up the mountain. Thereby giving him more work...

More stuff!!



I am beginning to do some creative things to my kitchen.
Lots of my house still needs finishing/renovating/even BUILDING (like the bathroom which is still 'temporary'!). I have written a bathroom blurb here.
The kitchen doesn't have any cupboards in it.
It never did.
Nor a sink.
Not much of a stove even.
My Best Sister brought me a wonderful old four oven Rayburn stove from Tasmania as a house warming present when I first bought the house. The concrete on the floor was put down with not enough cement in it so it is all flaky and dusty. The bathroom and laundry area (10' x 30') was the same but I have ripped that up and laid lovely old red bricks in it's place. I want to do that to this kitchen area too. Just need to get some energy from somewhere!

the left hand drawer of kitchen cupboard

Anyways! I bought a couple of entertainment units. Since everyone (else) in the world has gone crazy for enormous flat screen televisions there is now no call for the sort of cabinets that used to hold a 'normal' telly, along with drawers etc for CDs, DVDs, videos and all those other useless bits of wiring, remotes, waranty docs and manuals. I have one pine unit which will fit snugly into the pantry, and this one as a bar in the kitchen.

This cabinet has a pull-out drawer shelf at either end (see top photo) which had a couple of vertical boards with plastic thingies to hold DVDs and CDs. So I pulled them out, and cut the timber into lengths to make them into horizontal shelves, and nailed them in.



useful drawers full of jasmine

Just totally perfect for herbs and spices, and all the small things that get lost in a big cupboard.
The centre has two doors that fold back into the unit with another unit inside with shelves where the TV and DVD player etc sat, and more drawers.

interior of kitchen cupboard



One of the Woods Ware Jasmine plates (cups and saucers, jugs, bowls, whatever) which is tucked away in the bottom drawers and shelves of my new unit.

the Wood's Ware Jasmine china I collect



The answer is 42. Painted on 10.10.10 - 101010 or XXX

 On October 10 I made this painting to celebrate 10/10/10. There are 10 x 3 hearts cut from handmade Japanese papers, as well as three x 10, and three x X. Somewhere in there is perhaps going to be a shadowy 42 because in binary 101010 is 42! There are bits of gold leaf as well as a warm and cold cream (ha ha not Ponds...), and metallic sparkly paints. It is a long time since I painted. I think I shall have to do more of it (I need the practice for starters!)

Teddy, and a barbie - with new clothes

I have also been knitting dolls' clothes. And teddy clothes. This is my poor old Bare Bear who I have had since newborn. He is called Bare Bear because when I was three I threw him in the copper when Mum was washing clothes and all his fluffy mohair fur fell out...These are the first clothes he has had since I took him out of the nightie Nana made for Uncle Ernie 89 years ago. Still got that little nightgown, too! I have made a lot of barbie doll clothes, and even smaller knitted ones for a couple of tiny teddies who are about the right scale for the doll's house I am making (see below!). The tiny garments are knitted from one play tapestry wool on 1.5mm needles. I have also made some blankets for the doll's house beds in fine crochet silk, and the one ply wool. Good fun - fiddly but achievable when I am feeling tired!

doll's house bed with knitted blankets

OH look!!! a tiny doll's bed with knitted bedding! Next plan is a weeny small patchwork quilt using fine Liberty cottons and some silks I have stashed away!

This is a smaller scale doll's house that I have been making for years! It was a rather crude kit I bought in San Francisco when the boys were little. I put some of it together with their help a long time ago, and then put it away as it was rather too fiddly for little boys...

cutie pie doll's house and furniture I am making (yep that is a quilt!)

Some of the other furniture there is from the weekly installment doll's house I am currently putting together.
The quilt hanging behind is one I bought in SF back in the 1980s. It is hand stitched reverse applique and made by Hmong refugees who had gone to live in America from northern Thailand/Laos.

Tiny Teddy's new clothes

The very small teddy with his new cable knit jumper and woolly shorts!  That is a dressing gown on the needles.
The patterns are from the booklets that came with the weekly edition packs. We started buying this back about 1997 - it was supposed to be 100 weekly installments costing $10 each. Then it wandered up to $14 or $15, and to even monthly intervals. AND THEN - when it got to 100 installments it kept going for another 25 installments...

It took YEARS to collect!

All up these five boxes of kit must have cost about $1,500 (I could have had a REAL bathroom for that price!). Sadly - or surprisingly! - I am missing only one installment (somewhere in the mid 50s). It is the one that has quilting in the booklet, too. I don't know what part of the house is missing.

Below is a photo of the booklet front page. It was developed by Del Prado, originally it seems from Spain, but then from the UK. Each installment came with a part of the house, instructions on how to construct said part, and a 6 or 8 page booklet that went together to compile a whole book about all sorts of aspects of dolls' house stuff.
Sometimes the wooden bit would be a chair, or a dresser, or half a wardrobe with the other half the following week (fortnight....month...sigh), or a piece of wall, floor, ceiling. Absolutely impossible to construct really until all the pieces were acquired!

Fortunately I DID get a ring binder with separators for each of the construction instructions to keep them orderly.
However, all the other bits are supposed to go into binders to make into about 6 different books. Don't have them, haven't been able to source them online either.
Nor did we get the transformer for the electricals - lighting etc. But that is probably cos it would have been different wiring or even voltage if it originated in Spain. But do have all the tiny light fittings and bulbs etc.

Cover of doll's house booklet

The bottom right hand house is similar to the one I am making. Mine has a narrower hallway in the centre rather than rooms, is two storied with two more rooms in the attic.

So far I have got the bottom left hand room done, and the downstairs hall as well as some of the dear little furniture. It is really lovely silly fun!

right side with new shelves

Oh will you just look at that!
Here is the photo from the top of the page that I thought was lost!
I am not going to risk trying to relocate it again...
This is the right hand pullout drawer/shelf unit. That is the pantry door in the background, and the sink is to the right, lounge area to the left on the other side of the unit.
It is high, high enough to lean on whilst entertaining guests on the other side and I am on the working side creating a meal!

And cheap as chips.
I bought this on eBay for about $80. It was a craftsman-built unit, solid timber as well as classy veneer (not crappy chipboard and plastic!) - weighs a tonne!

I thought I was immensely clever to think of upcycling one of those redundant units (or two of them really!).

Apologies if this is difficult to read and with a messier than messy layout. Suck it up. Next entry will be better I promise - I am at The Sweetheart's on the eccentric notebook to add insult to injury!

Some stuff

Some of what I have been up to recently....


There was a great tree, far too close to the house because the ground was "heaving" around it. (Technical term used by the tree surgeon who came to look at it).
Here is the tree LOOMING over the house, and the water tanks.

Every time I came home I would turn the corner at the end of the road and look to see if I could still spy the blue triangle of the end of the roof!
It is about 12 metres to the first branches.





This is the "heaving" ground. Not very comforting. Eucalypts have very shallow root systems, they spread out on the surface with no great tap roots to hold them to the centre of the earth. Furthermore, the last ten years have been dreadfully dry droughty years, so all the trees are under stress. We have had some good rains this winter - the best in ten years in fact - but too late for many trees. There are lots which have fallen in recent months.




And then Wesley, the tree surgeon cutting in to the lovely big tree. He cut down three for me, the two others were looming over Outer Bungolia and the house but smaller than this one, and destined for firewood.

Here is the yellow gum lying down. It is 9 metres long, and tapers from 800mm to 650mm along the length.

Wesley said it would be "a shame" to burn it for firewood, as there is a house full of timber in it. How amazing is that?! Even if it only is an Outer Bungolia full of timber I shall be happy.

I am still looking for someone who has a portable mill who will be able to cut it into useful timber for me to use.




















And that is one of the things that has occupied me lately!









(and ignore silly text change too - in case I haven't been able to fix that either...another sigh!)

About time!!!

It seems an appropriate date to start blogging again - 10/10/10.
I should have got started earlier and posted this at 10 a.m. as well. However, we were watching the beginning of the Bathurst 1000...and when the Sweetheart raced there, too!

I am so sorry to have left the last post hanging - and so long ago, too.
Everything is now fine, it wasn't so bad back then either. Got through all the gyny-oncologist stuff with flying colours. Actually, the colours were rather drab and murky, but things is now good, am beginning to feel human again.

I got out of the blogging habit over winter. Lots of lovely curling up in bed with good books - and not so good books, lots more of knitting (tiny dolls clothes - they are achievable!) in front of the telly and a fair bit of being at my sweetie bloke's place. (And not JUST because he has instant heating either...).

I shall have to not only get back in to a blogging habit, but to learn all the new things that Blogger seems to have come up with whilst I was hibernating!

Thanks for your patience - I shall now be back in force!PS - Just went off to see if I could edit the time to make it look like I actually was on here at 10 a.m. but decided either a) it going to be too difficult or b) I am not really good at lyin' and cheatin'!

What? Where? Who???

I know - another week has slid past me and you haven't heard from me.
Sorry.

What happened?

On Saturday we went to the footie to see Gisborne get thrashed by South Bendigo.
This is a shot by The Sweetheart so you can see what sort of football we play in Australia. It is like running two marathons - not a great big interchange bench like in gridiron, and far far more ball contact that soccer. Look at that score - how disappointing for Gissie!!!!

At half time all the little kids - children and grandchildren of players and supporters - get out on the oval and play kick to kick with their little footballs.  Look at this little bloke, he is still in nappies!!!

And then life got interesting with a sort of streaker. Some bloke on a buck's turn in a mankini.

Who says looking like Borat isn't a good look?
That isn't a bad looking arse, is it?
He just did alittle dash out onto the oval and then a u-turn and back over the boundary fence where he was met by all his mates. I don't know that too many people even got to see him.
The Sweetheart grabbed this shot - good job he had the big lens on, we wouldn't have been able to see this if I had used my little camera...







I need some help identifying this plant.

And I thought I planted snake beans in the garden, but instead these things have happened. They came up in a creeepery-vine which fooled me into thinking they were beans.
The leaves are heart shaped and the flowers are tiny little white ones that look like a solanum, there are then berries that rapidly dry to a paper casing with three of four dark triangulate seeds in them.

And the seeds smell a bit yucky. Not a pleasant spice smell, but a bit nasty.

I have the feeling I should be ripping them all out cos I am betting those seeds  will germinate and the whole world will be covered in them by next summer.

Any help with identification would be great - maybe I have something new and exotic that will be useful to the world. I know what bean seeds look like so am pretty sure that is what I planted...

You can get some idea of the scale with the seeds on the crossword. They are little pods, only as big as  my little finger nail.

And then I made a peach chocolate cinnamon cake.

I just made up the recipe, drained tinned peaches on the base of the square cake tin, 2 cups of dark brown sugar thrashed to death with 250 grams of butter, added 4 eggs, and 2 cups SR flour sifted with a few spoonfuls of lovely Dutch cocoa and a tablespoon of cinnamon, along with the juice from the peaches. Cooked for about 35 mins at 350* -  possibly should have been a bit shorter time as it dried out a bit around the edges, but nothing that a slathering of cream couldn't fix.

I think it would be nicer with some ground ginger in with it as well.
Next one...

I am knitting a jumper for The Sweetheart, 2 different cables one with a 12 row repeat, the other 24 rows, and in alpaca and wool variegated.   I did a lot of mumbled countings, and unpicking rows and stitches for the first few days, but now I have done three and a half pattern repeats and am getting the hang of it. Sort of. It is beginning to look like something is happening now.
This is the first time I ever knitted anything for someone bigger than me. And the last time I knitted something for me was 1984 when I was pregnant with S3. Still have it. The good thing of polyester wools -  they NEVER wear out...
Photos to come.

And have re-arranged my bedroom, spray painted some old lamp bases (one wooden candlestick one is now black satin and the other - formerly lolly pink girlie op-shopped china is now glossy Chinese red) and redid shades to make it all look sparky new there. And a really awful op-shopped plastic mirror frame that was brown and tan but is now satin black, and looks like finely carved wood.
Photos to come.

Yesterday my tall fiddling friend Andrew Clermont (or on Myspace, or just google him for all osrts of mentions!) dropped by with two of his musician friends (Parvi and Josh), they had lovely-to-listen-to rehearsals, showers, and an early dinner before heading to Melbourne for a few gigs.
Last night at The Lomond where S3 was co-incidentally working (because of the extra crowds because of the famous performer coming!) and then to stay with S4. A very early morning gig at The Hyatt in Melbourne and another at a school in Melbourne and then back here to play at The Maldon Hotel tonight. It is always delightful to catch up with him,and to spend time checking out the latest photos - he does wonderful slide shows on his iBook. The latest was a fabulous trip through Spain and Portugal in the last few weeks with his darling Bettina who is an extraordinary artist in Berlin. Check out her website to be impressed!!!

Wednesday night my lovely GP phoned to tell me that I failed dismally the Pap Test I had the other day.
Eighteen months ago I had 'low grade abnormalities' and had to see an oncologist-gynaecologist in Melbourne.
I was supposed to have another Pap Test after 12 months but last November was getting to Christmas and was a busy time. And besides they aren't the most fun things I ever do. Another besides, because of my naughty clotting factor I also bleed, and I quite like being menopausal and not bleeding. It hurts on top of all that. All very good excuses for procrastinating.
So back to see that nice o-g woman at the Royal Women's for another colposcopy and cone biopsy. Sigh...

I am a bit depressed about it all, really. A fuck it - am REALLY pissed off actually. And scared and worried. The only positive is that nobody in our family has ever had any sort of girlie cancer.


Better to to town and buy more food.
xxxx

Dad's Clothes...

Bruce Watson is a wonderful singer and songwriter here in Australia. And overseas, too. Sometimes overseas - he and his wife also have Just The Four Boys so they don't do the overseas bit as much as they want - or as much as they will when all the boys leave their nest!
Check out all about him here on his Myspace page.

He has a really great song about sorting through his father's belongings after he passed away. "Dad's Clothes" has been on my mind a lot this week.
On Sunday we went through The Sweetheart's Dad's stuff, and sorted who gets what.

"We sorted through Dad’s clothes today
Working out just who gets what, and what
we’d throw away...
Sifting through
the sifting sands of our family
We cried a little, we laughed a lot
Telling stories of the things we got
Telling
stories of the things we got
We didn’t know just what we’d find
Old fashioned
ties – and ties that bind
We sorted through Dad’s clothes today..."

You can find the whole song on that Myspace link, right hand side of the page and scroll through the songs until you find it and have a listen to it.

Dad had lots of stuff. And only two sons and a daughter to spread it around to...

His family history things that are going to a cousin as she is writing it all up.
Except for his war medals - The Sweetheart as the eldest son got them.

There were some paintings by Granma Inez - a stunning one on ivory of an ancestor painted 'from life in 1912' according to the inscription on the back of the frame.

And some lovely pottery. Dad was a really talented potter - he studied in Japan in the 1970s under some of the great Living Treasure potters, and had a lot of exhibitions over the years. A couple of years ago he told me he had worked out he had made over 40,000 pieces over the years. In which case we have bloody little to show for it all!!!! Only the leftovers that hadn't sold.

Four garbage bags of clothes - Pringle tshirts (silky and shiny and lovely to wear - ask me how I know this); and Ralph Lauren shirts and pants (including a rather loud pair of tartan trews), and a box of silk ties - mostly Italian hand made designer sorts of things, and some still in their wrappings. Jackets - pure wool as soft and tactile as silk and suede, and melton. Hats - a Stetson, and a Panama and a real boater.
And a German wool jacket and hat - the sort of thing you see every Sunday in Bavaria for Sunday Best.

And it all got divided up between the "kids" with some treasures to be divided between their kids.

All very sad really. A whole life relegated to memories. And worse - "where did THIS come from????"...
I have washed all the clothes and taken off his name tags. There is a great mountain of wonderful fine cotton shirts (he was very structured with his wardrobe - they are either variations of blue or of red)  to make into a quilt. There are lovely linen trousers that one of my boys will wear cos for them they don't have the "old man" associations that Pop's clothes have for his grandsons. And I reckon S3 will DIE for that Bavarian coat with it's embroidery and the cute hat.
It looks like THIS and the hat like THIS but of course not a cheap crappy party one but a real one.

I haven't got any photos as I left my camera at home, so you will have to just imagine all the rest. Though not to difficult to imagine Ralph Lauren shirts (though you might do a cat cough cough furball thing on those tartan dacks. They are so awful they are almost worth wearing. Not me - one of those Smellies I reckon).

Going home now, and I am going to STAY there - got far too much to do there really. And spending far too much time doing stuff here...

Funny funny boys!!! And a good site!

This girlie Mandi has a delightful blog about all the creativities she is having fun with in her home.

And funniest are the little side bits where she has notes of things that her little boys say.
Example:
Jamison (making a Christmas card):" Mom, how do you spell Horz?" (sounds just like Whores),
Me: "What??"
" I want to say 'ho' 'ho' ho' but I want to call them ho-ers."
Me:"Um you can't call them that."
Jamison: "Fine. How do you spell 'Merry Christmas, Ho's!' ?"

There are lots of them.
It is a good idea to write down the cute and funny things your kids say cos sure as eggs there will be too many of them for you to remember when they get old and sensible...

And did I mention she does really good stuff with her decor on the cheap? I want one of those little electric sanders she has. And wouldn't a nail gun be really really USEFUL? And then I would have to borrow The Sweetheart's compressor. No big deal.

Oh, oh, oh, isn't it Mother's Day SOON???????????????????

Op Shop Treasures!!!!

I have been op shopping again.

Got to love when you get a table full for $40. Oh, plus another $20 for the analog lawnmower I bought for S2 to whip that new lawn in Albury into shape. 

Could get him this t shirt...

Anyways, here are the treasures I got this week cluttering up the table!

I love the shape of this hand blown glass. Want more please.

A hand blown elegant jug, and a couple more of those 1940's pressed glass dishes with the warts of glass on them.

Some more glasses - champagne? Parfait? Two sizes in pretty smoky colours.

Two silver goblets, heavy and lush, a parfait spoon (woo hoo - now I have TWO) and a silver teaspoon, and a light weight silver plate.

A pretty blue glass for my friend Wendy who has a collection on her bathroom window sill.

More glass, a silver bud vase (specimen vase), a bamboo vase/pot, a heavy REAL steel cake tin with sewing goodies - zippers, bias binding, old lace, and some sparkles for 50 year olds (three packets of them! Happy 50th birthdays Lew and Flossy!!!).

Lots of material - 2 metres each of glorious green raw silk, and  African looking hand blocked red and green cotton, and a bundle of furnishing fabric scraps, couple of metres of each (and the op shop woman said "Bits of left over old material, how about 50 cents the lot?"...)

A stunning book, not (definitely not!) a children's book - In The Kingdom of Mescal  with fabulous illustrations. On the back cover are some brass curtain rings, and a very elegant bottle opener, a silver buckle, and some beads that could be resin or they could be amber...

Some spice jars with tin lids and a very ugly wooden holder, one missing but useful for beads I reckon. A glass cloche (or perhaps it is meant to be up the other way with a candle but I prefer it in cloche fashion), and a really interesting and really ugly PLASTIC mirror that will look fine when it is sprayed a different colour (not black which is all I have ATM). Some patterns to make things perhaps for Moo, and an old 1960's hostess gown frock pattern (with "Mum's" written on it) and only, oddly, the sleeve pattern used...

How good is this lot of stuff? Now to get back to remaking the curtains and Roman blinds my neighbour rescued from A Famous Person's skip a few weeks back - he brought me  a car full ,stuffed around his work gear, and there were ten times as many left to go to the tip. People are so wasteful I reckon. Thankfully...