Look what they got me!

Last week the girls had their netball break-up and as a gesture of thanks for my coaching and managing the team, the other Mums put together and bought me this gorgeous apron in shabby pink and green fabric...

which they had embroidered. (The Elmos was the team name.) I was very touched.

They also gave me a gift voucher for Apron, one of my favourite kitchen shops on the main street.

 So I bought this plate stand

and these fluted blue and cream pie dishes. Not that I need two but they looked so pretty.

Next year the girls are moving up to B-grade and want to change their name. BUT half the girls want something cute and fun like the Elmos or the Big Birds and the other half want something sporty like the Bullets or the Rockets. So far the tentative name is the Redbacks (6 votes out of 9) but we're trying for something better. Please, help with suggestions.

I've thought maybe the Fireflys or the Hot Peppers? Maybe not!

Market Finds

Sunday morning is market morning although I haven't been for a while. I was going to get some plants from my favourite plant seller but I was lucky enough to also find

this adorable pink teapot (just the right size for one) for $3 and this blue bowl for 50c.

I have a pastel green bowl and teapot that match them perfectly.

They'll be great for when I put out my pastels which should be soon, now that it's Spring.

I also found this vintage children's story book.

I love collecting them for their quaint pictures and bright colours and their retro language.

Earlier in the week, I also scored this Marks and Spencer tin for 50c. I'm not so fussed about the flower on top but I love the spotty sides.

I also got this jar for my pantry.

I'm going to paint the wooden top red and store my muesli in it.

And lastly, this great crocheted blanket in my favourite colours, red and light blue.

I love it.

A Pantry Re-do

I love my pantry. It was one of the things I was really excited about when we first bought this house. It's not large, but you can walk into it, there's shelves all around and a cute little window.

I painted the shelves when we first moved in, put up a few more, and have slowly been building my glass jar collection by buying bits here and there when I find them cheap. No plastic containers are allowed in my pantry. Since I'm lucky enough to have one, I want it to look beautiful too!

Now I do my grocery shopping once a month (I plan a month's worth of meals and work out exactly what I need to make them) and before I do it, and when the shelves are kinda empty, I like to give them a wipe down. Now this month, we were running out of EVERYTHING, so not just the shelves were empty but my jars too.

(No teabags left...I don't know how I survived the week.)

So what started out as a shelf wiping, turned into a let's empty the scraps out, wash the dust and gunk off the jars and hey, while we're at it, let's give them new labels too. I printed some labels with a cute border onto a sticker sheet and wrote the names on them.

While I was at it, I got this old basket,

and this old tin (that were alright when I was into primitive decorating,)

and gave them a blast of my new favourite powder-blue spraypaint.

The results really brightened up the darkness of the pantry.

(The colour is a bit intense in these photos.)

So it may not be much, but my pantry is now sparkling clean, and super-dooper organised and I love stepping into it and seeing all my jars filled up.

I love baking so I've got everything you could possibly need.

It makes me feel so rich and lucky, that come-what-may, we have enough food to last the month. Also, thanks to my new extra little freezer, I've been really, really organized and bought all my month's worth of meat (that we could NEVER have fit in our normal tiny freezer), cut it up, packed it and labelled it with the meal it's for. Couple that with the week's worth of bread that I bought cheap 'cos it was close to closing time, the well of abundance feels like it's overflowing.

And speaking of painting and brightening up, I have two of these flour sieves (from the primitive phase) that I was considering tossing as now they just look dingy.

But I dry brushed one with red for a bit of colour and I quite like the results. I think it'll look great at Christmas time with a green wreath. I might paint the other one white.

P.S. Stay tuned tomorrow for I plan to do my first give-away.

My Christmas Wish List

I know, I know, I'm meant to wish for peace and love and happiness and an end to worldwide hunger...and I want those things, I truly do, BUT, who am I kidding...I love getting presents. I love giving them too and try to make as many as I can because I just like that (sorry to all those people that cringe when they see that I'm buying for them because they know that they're going to get something homemade..but too bad. Hee hee.) I'm making something cute for my niece and nephew but of course I can't show you those until after Christmas.

Here's my Christmas list, so pay attention Mitch and Joe, although most of the stuff here isn't practical for you, Joe, because you only get to spend $10 - $15.

First up is a Cast Iron Reversible Griddle from "Apron" on Mary St. About $35. Then I'll be able to cook your steaks properly ,Mitch, and cook kebabs for the kids.(They won't fit in a frying pan and our griller doesn't work. The kebabs...not the kids.)

A new watering can. Okay, so a plastic one would work just fine, but metal is so much better looking...and how could you go past one as bright as this. Try Big W.

This picture's too small, but it's a mattock. For digging up my lawn and jungle, I mean (weedy, overgrown, disgustingly messy) garden beds, and turning them into "real" gardens.

Mitre 10...$25.

Okay, we've got a gardening theme happening here. This thing is called Grampa's Weeder.

Mitre 10....$25.

I know this one's just wishful thinking and I don't just mean the perky bum and "ahem" bosoms, but the real item of interest is the croquet set. You can get one (quite cheaply) at Sports Power for $70, but unfortunately our budget is $50 for each other for Chrissy. That's the Budget Rules. Sigh.

This cookbook which has recipes from classic childrens literature including Famous Five fruitcake, with little snippets from each story it accompanies.

And speaking of the Famous Five, I'd love to get this book, which I know is much cheaper from Big W. (And I think it has a different cover.)

Oh, and anything in the "Rosa" range by J & G Meakin. For the uninitiated, these are plain coloured plates, bowls, cups, teapots etc that I am currently having a love affair with. They were made during World War 2 when England producers weren't allowed to make anything with patterns. Some are just plain, but I particularly love the ones with the scallopy edges. You can also get them in blue (Celeste), green (Jade) and creamy yellow (Sunshine) all in yummy, pretty pastel colours which I also collect, but I particularly love the pink.. Actually I also have ones that look similar made by Johnson Brothers and Grindley. I don't really care about the company, I just love the look. You can get them on ebay but with the postage it can get quite expensive. I've picked most of mine up from thrift shops and second-hand markets/sales, most times for just a couple of bucks.

The picture isn't of my collection, unfortunately.

So Mitch, take your pick of all these wonderful presents that you so carefully thought up for me. And Joe, you sort of know my tastes, don't you. Anything vintagey or cottagey, in red or pastel for the kitchen or navy or blue or white is fine. I like spots too. (I'm just not really into the "country" thing with farm animals and cutesy dolls anymore.) I love the houses on these blogs that are all listed down the side if you need further inspiration.

Daisy Cottage
Cherry Hill Cottage
Posy Gets Cosy
An Enchanted Cottage
Little Red House
At Home with MelMel

I hope this helps.

And a final thank you to all the random websites on the internet that I got my pictures from. I know I should probably credit them properly, but I'm lazy like that.

My pretties

These are just a few things that I bought in the last week.

Can you actually believe I ummed and aahed over these milkshake cups and walked out of the St Vinnies and hopped in the car, before turning around and buying the blue ones. Yes, just the blue. I took them home and showed Rosie who usually scorns ANYTHING bought secondhand (how gross) but these she liked enough to get past that. I told her I was tempted to buy the pink ones as well so we both went straight back and bought them too. If you leave things too long at op shops, they get snapped up. They were $8 for each set of four which I thought was a little expensive BUT they are practicaly brand new and if I bought them in the kitchen shop here, they would be $8 EACH. We've been having so many milkshakes just because they look so pretty.

But wait, there are only 3 pink cups in the above picture. That's because they are good for this too.

I also bought the little pink tin for 50c for Rosie to keep her hairbands in.

I scored these 3 magazines for 80c each as well, and I've noticed that I've been showing a definate lean towards things pastel and pretty lately.

Now here's something not that pretty but they will be when I put them in my garden and grow vines or sweet peas up them, don't you think. I was considering painting them white but they are pretty badly rusted and I don't know if it would be worth the effort of preparing them.

Bedroom Update: I'm going to paint the last wall with undercoat today then I can finally start painting with colour. Is anyone else as slow as me? I certainly could never be on one of those DIY shows where they complete a room in a weekend.

When life gives you smashed plates, make mosaics.

While searching for Egyptian recipes, Ella and I came across this recipe for Egyptian Chocolate Cake. It was ultimately rejected for more "authentic" recipes, but it sounded so good, I just had to make it later.

First combine 4 oz dark chocolate and 1/2 cup strong coffee in a small saucepan. Cook,stirring, over low heat until the chocolate is melted. Remove from heat to cool to room temperature.

Cream 1/2 cup softened butter and 1 cup sugar together in a mixing bowl (or a groovy original retro Sunbeam Mixmaster like mine. Don't ya love it. Thank you e-bay!) until they are light and fluffy.
Add 2 eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in 1 tsp vanilla and the chocolate mixture.

Sift 1 3/4 cup flour, 2 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp cinnamon and 1/8 tsp ground cloves together.


Add dry ingredients alternately with 1/2 cup milk to the creamed mixture, beating well.

Pour batter into 2 greased and lined sandwich cake tins. Bake in a preheated 350 F/180 C oven for 30 mins or until done.

Cool cakes in pan for 10 mins, the flip them out to cool.

While you're waiting for this, make the yummy Cinnamon Whipped Cream Icing.

Mix 2 cups of whipping cream, 1/4 cup icing sugar, 2 tsp vanilla and 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon. Beat until soft peaks form.

Put the cake together with some of the Cinnamon Cream in the middle and smother it all over the top and down the sides. Ooh, decadent. I also grated some dark chocolate over the top.

Of course I forgot to take a photo until it was half eaten.

See my pretty cake plate in the above picture. It was given to me for my engagement by my Oma and Opa with some matching saucers and cake forks. It was all the way from Holland.

Well, Ella, as she often does, (Mitch often finds his dark chocolate with rows of little teeth marks on it) was trying to sneak some cake and dropped the plate. Smash! It is now in 5 pieces.

I was very good and didn't yell at her, but maybe that was because there was someone at the back door buying eggs at the time and by the time he left, it had given me a few minutes to calm down. But maybe, it's also because I'm so used to things breaking in our house by now, that I'm not so precious about my things anymore. Sigh!

Well, I couldn't bear to throw the pieces in the bin, so I was contemplating glueing them together and hanging the plate on the wall, when it struck me. I'd found an old wooden tray at an op shop ages ago which I was going to mosaic with my friend Lisa (she was going to pretty up her bathroom mirror) but I couldn't decide which ones of my saucers I was going to smash for the honour. Problem solved!


I think it would be just about the right size, the pieces are fairly flat and I think it will look really pretty with the blue scallopy border bits around the edges. So I'll forgive you this time, Ella. And no, you can't have that piece of cake, after all.


And just quickly, I know this is a long post, I want to show you my picnic basket that I picked up at the markets this weekend. It was my weekend for saling but I was just to tired to go on Saturday. But this was waiting for me at the markets on Sunday so it was meant to be.


$15, which was a little more than I'd usually pay (I'm such a cheapskate) but it was in really good condition, and look, the lining matches my kitchen valance.


And it was just the right size to carry all my veges I had bought. And so much prettier than my green bags I usually use.

The Saling Gods are smiling.

OMG! I can't wait to show you the bargains I picked up this afternoon... an early start to my "saling" weekend. I had decided that I would only go garage saling every second week (after payday because that's when I get my $20 "pocket money") but was still trying to work out how to break the news to hubby that, yes, I'm going out shopping for more "crap" to fill the house with this weekend. But wait, Mitch has gone away for 2 nights, to his State titles for boxing, so now I don't have to hide anything. Yesss! (Imagine a fist pumped in the air.)


Anyway, I was driving home from dropping Rosie off to gymnastics when I spy a lady setting up a sale in her front yard for tomorrow. Looks interesting, I says to myself, are they canisters I spy...and crockery? Goody. But do I have my purse with me? NO.


After picking up Rosie however, I decided to stop and just innocently knock on the door to ask what time the sale starts tomorrow. (I made sure I had my purse this time.) What me, have an ulterior motive? Can I help it if they invite me to look around now? And,oh boy, was it a good sale or what. There are two things that indicate a GOOD sale 1. Obviously that they have good stuff and 2. That they are cheap. (If I wanted to pay $20 for a cup and saucer I would go to a shop.)


The first thing I went for was her stack of china saucers. She's been collecting them for years she tells me, there's even Meakin and Shelley in there. I don't care what the labels are, I just go for what grabs me, right there in the stomach region, but if it has a label, even better. I look at a few pretty ones. "How much?" I ask, half wincing, waiting for the answer. (I had a bad experience last week, but then again it wasn't my week for "saling" so maybe that was my punishment for breaking my own rules.) 5c each! I take nearly all of them, 14 plates in all. "So that's 70c," she says. I feel so grateful that I say, "No, that's $2, at least." And even then I feel like a cheapskate. I also got this little canister (in the middle) which matches some dinner plates I already have. 50c. Yep. I think I'll keep my Chai tea in here.



Then I found this cute Dutch clock, which is plastic but looks real. I'm half Dutch, so would like to start collecting more Dutch things and I've been looking for a clock for the lounge room. But I think it would suit the kitchen more. We'll see.



Next up was this great set of scales. (The one in the middle, already friendly with my other two. I think I feel a collection coming on.) $5.

Then I found these cute pictures, the set for $3. They are about 20 cm square and have got double matting and everything.

And last, but not least, my favourite. These frames.

The lady told me that they are really old. She bought them from an estate sale years ago and has been holding on to them from move to move, but it was time to let them go. They are really old, she tells me again. So I ask the price, wincing again, thinking $15, $20 each. Nope, only $2, and even then, she's almost apologetic, as if she's overcharging. Woo hoo, as Homer says. Maybe it's a desecration for something so old but I think I'll paint them white. Then I'll have to work out what to put in them. I kind of like them even just propped up against this chair.

And I've still got money to go saling tomorrow with my good friend and crafting buddy, Lisa. Bring on tomorrow.



P.S. I have a confession to make. We had takeout pizza for dinner tonight (when Mitch is away, the girls will play) so after my holier-than-thou description of my baking in my Things About Me, I feel like a fraud. No, maybe just human. I do just get tired of cooking sometimes. Do you still love me?