They Try to Make Me Go to Rehab, I Say No, No, No....

Thrifted Tuesday!
Again, on a Thursday......
Turns out, I've got a Partner In Crime.....
Evil Thrifters... taking over the world in second hand shoes and refashioned frocks....he he he

Anyways, onto the goods...

For the price of half a metre of quilting fabric from my local quilting shop - this whole pile of brilliant cottons:

I'm especially fond of the blue and white spot with the green cherries......oh and That Leopard Print - I'm a sucker for animal prints, I love their trashy, nouveau-riche socialite value....brilliant..

Second up is a simple polka-dot t-shirt for work, paired with some plastic/fantastic yellow beads:

I swear, I'm going through a Second TennagerHood...... I've been a Melbourne Influenced Black is the new Black wearer for years (augmented by my large stage as a Punk), and now suddenly, it's all about colour, and plastic stuff, and bright shoes, and skinny jeans.......lord, what's happening to me?????

Anyway, harkening back to my roots now, my little heart leapt when I saw this, for $1:

Think of the Ginger Fluff Sponge, people!
I learnt how to cook out of books like these - simple, economical food for country people, stodgy and weird - things like trifle and christmas cakes full of booze, pavlova and sponges, bread and butter pudding, the works.
Being vegetarian, the meat section is truly terrifying, but I love it nonetheless.....

And there you have it... the thrift haul o' the week.

In other news, I've been rearranging the kitchen, making way for my new purchase:

Which neccesitated a complete rearragement of the Teacup Collection:

Taking photos of which was just an excuse to share a snippet of the vintage crockery collection!

I've also branched out in the knitting stakes, and puchased a new pattern from Six and a Half Stitches, a gorgeous flap front babies' cardigan with fabric details - a true favourite amongst readers of Alison's Blog. I'm going out on a limb here, knitting with a pattern and all, so expect lots of call-outs for advice! Hopefully I'll manage to get a passable version knitted for the new addition to the family, via my sister, who is due sometime in October......

Phew! A big post after a little break!

The blog moving plans are still going ahead, and I'm expecting to move very soon, plus the quilt tutorial is on it's way, but I'm going to save it for the new location.......plenty of plans in the works...

Cheers m'dears - Leah xx

Oh, and the lyric in the title? Amy Winehouse. I cannot get her songs out of my head.....

Retail Therapy....

Yep. That's right. I bought a new washing machine. (actually, I interest-freed it, which isn't really the same thing, but whatthehell...)

It's an LG washer/dryer combo, which to me sounds rather terrifying, but they insist it works, so I'll have to trust the whitegoods gods on that.

After endless trips to the laundromat, and/or trying to tempt the old washing machine to take on more than a pair of socks without throwing a tantrum, I finally reneged, and just went and got a new one.

And, as I am defiantly still clinging onto my Twenties, I refuse to get too excited over the prospect of Properly Clean Clothes, steam and refresh cycles, and fluffy towels. Surely it is the absolute right of the 28 year old woman to bite her thumb at whitegoods and buy a handbag or some shoes or an ipod instead.

Alas, I have been saying for a long time that I am an eighty-something year old woman trapped in a twenty-something's body.

The truth always comes out in the wash, or so they say.

In other news, my Best Friend In The Whole World gets married on Saturday, and I'm not going to be there, so Katie, my love, have a fabulous day.

It's been raining, so no quilt tutorial yet.....but soon...!
xxx

Ta....

First of all, before I go into anything else, I wanted to say a big thankyou to all the people who commented on my quilt in the last post. It was so nice to get emails and comments, and requests for tutorials, and I'm still quite crap at replying to everyone in person, so please take this as my personal thankyou......

Today, like many days in this household, began with eggs.

So weird to think that I used to be vegan, and the very thought of eggs was enough to make me gag....now I eat them by the bucketload. In fact, the reason I don't post too often over at Breakfast Sunday, is because I get shamed by all those gorgeous, healthy, meusli and yoghurt/ fresh fruit combinations!

Though once the weather gets warmer, I'll be eating less stodgy things to start the day.....

Speaking of the end of winter, even though I look forward to some sunshine like a woman possesed, I will miss having a real, concrete reason to knit. I wandered into the Spotlight winter yarn sale the other day, and came home with all of this, mostly at 2 or 3 dollars a ball:

Which I very quickly turned into a pair of these:

Which, in actual fact, I don't really need anymore. Brilliant. Bring on Spring, I say!

And just to bring this completely random post full of Nothing In Particular to a fitting end - Self Portrait Saturday.

Taken in the mirror in my kitchen.

I've been working on the tutorial for the quilt, by the way, but the photos I took turned out a bit shit due to lack of light, so I'm gonna have another go at it tommorrow...... promise!

Sleep well, my pretties.....xxx

Thrifted Tuesday....

Yep, on a Thursday, again. Seems that bloggers are quite flippant with the days of the week...

Todays finds?

Four spools of lace weight yarn, in gorgeous warm tones...$1.75 each:

Not sure what I'll knit from them, but I'm keen to see how the light weight yarn works on the needles....

A little pile of mismatched buttons + a good length of nice and soft light grey wooly flannel that I think will end up as a serious, tweedy-looking Nong....

Yet another present for my neice, who is getting packages-a-rama in the mail from me lately.....this is just a sneak peek for my sister, before I send it!

Plus, The Best Teacup In The Whole World:

It's not in the best condition, which is a damn shame, *but* it's red white and black (my all time favourite colours), comes as a trio, AND it has polka dots. What more could you want?

After trawling around op shops for the afternoon, I had an insatiable craving for cake.....so, for once, I actually made one myself....

Despite my love for vintage crockery, I'm not really a kitchen kind of person. I ADORE good food, and love to eat it, but I'm not a very good cook and I don't often spend time in the kitchen. I blame it on my lifestyle: working nights doesn't really lend itself to the whole cooking, sharing and eating thing, it's more of a grab and run affair. Pity.

So it was nice to make a cake for once; this one from a tried and true recipe of my Mum's - a basic teacake that doesn't call for masses of ingredients, and you can throw whatever you have in the cupboard into it, in this case, walnuts and nutmeg:

This be the recipe:

Basic Tea Cake

ingredients:

60g butter, softened,
1 tsp vanilla essence,
2/3 cup caster or fine white sugar (you can actually use any sugar you want)
1 egg
1 cup self raising flour
1/2 cup milk.


cream the butter and sugar, and add egg, a little at a time, beating in as you go. Gradually stir in the flour and the milk, alternating between them, and beat until fluffy.
grease your cake tin, throw in the mixture, and bake for 30 mins in a moderate oven.

That's the basics, I usually add some cinnamon, top the cake with apple slices and raw sugar, or put half the mixture in the tin, top with custard, then the rest of the mixture, so the custard bakes in the middle....mmmmmmm

Tea and Cake. What could be better?

xxxx

Back......(well, sort of)

Having a week or so away from blogging has been weird. Even though I haven't been doing this for very long, the habit of taking photographs, and planning little posts in my head has definately taken hold......

My computer is still in the shop, they haven't managed to find the problem, and are going to charge me through the nose for the fact that there is nothing wrong with the bloody thing, so I haven't been in to pick it up yet. In the meantime, I have dragged the old laptop out of it's retirement, happily playing music in the bedroom, to a more rigorous life as bloggers' assistant, and it's taken me this long to get all the software and bookmarks and such updated.

Anyhoo..... you would think that a week off with a newly repaired sewing machine would result in lots of things to show and tell, but I stupidly decided to do this instead.....

Namely, pulling everything out of the spare bedroom, and deciding that it will be the spectacular new home to all my sewing gear, now that it is winter, and the tiny little room off the front verandah is just not cutting it as a studio for me.....

Now, lots of furniture moving later, it's looking a little like this:

There's a distinct lack of colour in there, but I'm working on the more decorative features now......
But by far the most exiting thing is this:
This is part of my fabric stash before the renovation.....

And after following a Brilliant Tutorial, my fabrics look like this:

So so so so so much better........ I always wondered how Other.
People managed to keep thier fabrics is such good order....but now the secret's out! Not only is this an incredibly anal and satisfying thing to do when you're procrastinating, it does have some other bonus points as well..... When your fabric is folded this way, I swear, it takes up about a third of the space it did before. Those shelves were full to the brim, bursting out all over the place with higgeldy piggeldy piles of fabric....... Not Good.

The other thing is how such a process reaquaints you with your stash. There are fabrics in there I had totally forgotten about. And a whole pile of others I decided I didn't like anymore, so I'll probably send them back to the op shop from whence they came.... and while you're mediatively folding your fabric, you also subconsciously decide what you're going to make out of it.

Anyway, so that's what I've been doing. No, I haven't made a single fucking thing yet. But I'm organised at least. That's something, right?

Before I go, I must send out a thankyou to my sister, who sent me this in the mail while I was offline....

Another little pile of vintage brilliance, with a tote bag pattern to go with it.

She's the only person in my real world who actually reads my blog, for some reason I'm really shy about it, and I get embarrased when I talk about it. Most people know I'm up to something, but I don't share the details. It's weird, I know, but there you have it. So thanks Leonie, for knowing me well enough to not laugh at my weirdness, and sharing my love of making the best of what you can find.......xxxxx

I'll be back in full force over the next week - once I've put everything back where it's supposed to be......

Excuse Me?

What do you mean, Addicted. To. Fabric??????

This lot came in the mail today, from Z & S Fabrics....mmmmmmmm I don't really need to tell you how much I love new fabric, do I?
There's a bunch of half yards of Denyse Schmidt's new Katie Jump Rope Collection, plus a few sale fabrics........ I SWEAR this has to be the last fabric I buy before I get the sewing machine fixed. I took her in to be serviced today, so hopefully our Betty will be back up and running in less than a week.

Lucky for me, this wasn't the only present I got in the mail today!
I was lucky enough to be the 300th customer at Three Dog Party's Etsy shop, and I scored a whole bunch of stuff other than the Air Mail cards I ordered!

I LOVE their cards, especially these.....

And these ones crack me up....

Thanks guys!!!!

After opening all the exciting post, I spent about a thousand hours in the Laundromat, followed by a little bit of Op Shopping......the score?

This Old Royal teaset, a set of six.....

In these colours.....

It must have been a teacup day, because I dashed out to Ikea for some picture frames, and came home with this instead....

Now I'll have plenty to contribute to Cup of The Day!

All in all, a satisfying day.........

I Heart Saturdays.

Saturday is a day of ritual for me....the trip to the newsagent to get the Weekend papers, taking time over breakfast, pottering around for the day until I go to work in the evening.....Today was no exception, except for one thing.....

Twice a year at the pub where I work, we have a secondhand book sale. The father of one of the women I work for spends 6 months trawling garage sales and op shops and stashes all the books away for the sale, selling them on for usually just a dollar or so each.

The haul this time?

*Jean Paul Satre - Words
*Richard Dawkins - The Blind Watchmaker
*Alice Walker - The Color Purple
* Victor Bocris - Warhol (biography)
*Jane Austen- Persuasion
*The Collected Short Stories of Roald Dahl
*Edgar Allan Poe's Collected Works
*Zadie Smith-The Autograph Man
*The British Commonwealth and Empire (for my English partner!)
*The Beatles - In Thier Own Words

So we can safely say that I am set for reading for a little while.....

After the sale, back into the Saturday routine, the weekend paper, a pot of tea, and some homemade (not by me though, I'm afraid) fig and walnut jam on toast....

You can see more photos of bloggers' breakfasts over at Breakfast Sunday.....

In other news, I thought I'd post some better photos of my Two skein scarf thingy.....it's looking a little careworn, mainly because I've hardly taken it off since I made it, but so far I've taken three orders for new ones, so I might make a few more if anyone would be interested in buying one? (probably Aussie readers, considering it's just coming up to warm weather again in the States)

Basically, it's two layers of thick knit in stocking stitch, sewn together and set off by two vintage buttons. It's worn like a cowl, and it's two layers keeps your neck nice and toasty, but is quickly removable for once you get inside in front of the fire......

It's the kind of thing that would be a peice of cake for a knitter to whip up, but if wooly stuff isn't your forte, drop us a line and I'll whip one up for you!

One more thing before I go.....you may remember ages ago I posted about my Renovation Project..... well, here are some work in progress pictures....

It's had a coat of white semi gloss, and is looking much cleaner....

And the door now has glass you can actually see through......

Now I just have to sand it AGAIN and do ANOTHER coat of paint, and it might just be ready to put in the hallway.....uuurrrrgghhhhhh......

Well, enough for today, I've got a newspaper to read!

Oh, and if anyone is wondering if I'm actually going to sew anything any time soon....Betty (my lovely sewing machine) is doing some drastically weird things right now, so I've decided to take her to hospital before I put her through any more torture. Granted, as old as she is, I'm sure she deserves some love and care...so after Hans has worked his magic on her, I'll be back in full force....promise...!

Today....

Woken up by the postman ( about the only thing I am ever happy about being woken up for) with a much anticipated package from Repro Depot

Containing five yards of all those building blocks fabrics I have been meaning to buy for ages....

Oooooh I am so impressed, the measuring tape is even better in real life, and after seeing snippets of it in practically everyone's projects, I can't wait to put that yard to very good use.....

Then, back to bed for a little while, then up again to get the car towed to the mechanic, and some eggs for breakfast...

Followed by a lift into town to buy even MORE fabric, I tell you what, the bank balance is looking a little poor......

So I'd better get sewing so I can open my shop soon and sell something to finance the next lot of fabric madness!

Before I go though, a question for my fellow Aussies - is there anywhere you can recommend to buy fabric online in Australia? At the moment I'm getting things sent from the States at an alarming rate, and some local suppliers for quilt fabrics in good, clean, modern prints (no pink country living florals for me, I'm afraid), and also dress fabrics like lighter weight cottons, linens, wool suiting, anything really suitable for dressmaking would be fine by me? Any suggestions, my lovelies?

Well, the patterns are calling to be cut..... see you all soon! xxx

Stuck.

Right now, I'm stuck at home with a car that won't start, a backseat full of washing I was going to take to the laundromat ( the bloody washing machine has broken) and a belly that is still complaining that it hasn't got it's favourite noodles for breakfast.

But in the spirit of making the best of the time until the roadside assistance people come, I have some pictures to show you......

These pictures are dedicated to the lovely Shula, whose gorgeous blog and knitting pursuits make me wish I were a more accomplished knitter, plus she got quite excited to hear that I live in a cemetery...... so here you go:

Work In Progress this week is a one skein cowl project that has somehow mutated into a two skein bizarre scarf thingy project.... perhaps a result of my refusal to follow any kind of pattern..... I tend to see something, say "I can make that" and just knit away, totally oblivious to the fact that I have NO IDEA what I'm doing! Patience? A Virtue?? What on earth are you talking about?????

I was planning to keep knitting at the laundromat, see, but instead I went out and took some promised photos of the cemetery.....

(see how those two photos are REALLY SMALL? That's becase if I put the medium sized ones in, blogger chops out the most important parts on the right hand side to fit them in my blog......GRRRRRR!!! If you want to see them at proper size, just click on them and you'll see a bigger one..... sorry!)

It's really old, the cemetery, dating back to the late 1800's, and sadly, it hasn't been cared for as it should have been, it's a bit drab, with hardly any plants or lawns, and the part next to the house is very bare and barren looking.....that's the house at the very end there in the picture below......

We only have one angel, she's for a woman named Florence.....

But it's the details that I like best......

And there is always some fake flowers.....at the moment there are quite a lot of flowers because of Mothers' Day....

It sounds a little depressing, I'm sure, but I actually love living here..... and it does have it's comical side, like when I need to light a fire and I venture out into the cemetery to collect some kindling, possibly in my bright red slippers and some random assortment of scarves and jumpers, and then people ride past on thier bikes and look at me like I'm the crazy cat lady or something...... I love the thought that the local kids might think I'm a witch, or that it's spooky, when, in fact, it's the most peaceful place I've ever lived, with the exception of the farm I grew up on.

Well, that's me for today, I'm off to make tea and look out for the magic car man.....xxx

Finally.....

After the last few months of organising, reassessing, dropping out of uni, resting, working, and farewelling of old friends, habits and worries, I have begun to make things again.

The studio is finally functional, and though, being in a heritage listed rental cottage, I don't have the permissions necessary to do a Heather, or indeed, a Manda,
at least I have a space where everything has a place, (well, nearly), and I can be comfortable, and work.

The Stash is coming along nicely, soon to be boosted with some purchases from
Cia's Palette (thanks Manda!)

And my new Work In Progress is a baby quilt, possibly for my sister, made from some gorgeous soft linen placemats I found the other day, patchworked and quilted.

And of course, one of my favourite things about living where I do: the view of the cemetery!

I live in what used to be the caretakers' cottage of a local cemetery.... the oldest graves come right up to the side of the house on one side, and date back as late as the 1800's. The cemetery runs alongside the major river of my city, and there is a bike path that leads to the city in one direction, and the sea in the other.

When the local council took over caring for the cemetery, they decided to rent out the cottage now that there was no longer any need for a caretaker, and that's where I come in. Though it's an unusual place to live, it's actually quite peaceful, and I love it dearly. Though sometimes I would trade it in, no question for a big house with lots of space, filled with natural light, in actual fact I would be very sad to leave.

One day, when I have some more time, I'll take some photographs out there to show you! But for now, I'm off to get some sewing done!